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By:

Prasad Dixit

11 October 2024 at 1:09:23 am

The Human Advantage in an Artificial Age

As artificial intelligence grows smarter and more efficient, the real battle may not be about machines surpassing humanity but about whether humans squander the qualities that still set them apart. With the recent news of a Chinese robot beating the human record in a half- marathon, there is renewed debate on how AI could outsmart human beings. Many experts see it as yet another proof of impending disaster as AI takes over most of the jobs in the years to come. This is not the first time when...

The Human Advantage in an Artificial Age

As artificial intelligence grows smarter and more efficient, the real battle may not be about machines surpassing humanity but about whether humans squander the qualities that still set them apart. With the recent news of a Chinese robot beating the human record in a half- marathon, there is renewed debate on how AI could outsmart human beings. Many experts see it as yet another proof of impending disaster as AI takes over most of the jobs in the years to come. This is not the first time when human civilization is facing a technological revolution that has the potential to impact society and economy in a profound manner. There is, however, a crucial difference with AI driven revolution that is often missed out. The first industrial revolution happened because steam engines were invented and it led to mechanization of production. It was followed by discovery of electrical energy and technologies to harness it for mass production. Next wave of evolution was led by computerization and automation in practically all the fields covering both offices and industrial shop floors through mainframes, personal computers, and programmable logic controllers. While all these leaps in technologies are very different in terms of the specific underlying inventions, they all have one thing in common. They were all invented to do things that were humanly impossible to do. One steam engine or electric motor could do the work that perhaps hundreds of humans would never be able to accomplish even with their collective muscle power. Automation of the manufacturing assembly line would deliver speed and accuracy that human beings would never be able to achieve. Beyond Human Technological advances in Telecommunication, for that matter, have simply expanded the range of 'hearing' and 'seeing' far beyond what human vocal chords, ears, and eyes could manage to do on their own. Computers, at its core, are essentially doing the math and calculations at a speed and accuracy that the human brain can never achieve. To add to that, machines using all these innovations in technology would work tirelessly without any fatigue for a duration that human beings would never be able to match. Although AI is yet another highly potent technological innovation, it is not as straightforward as the previous ones. It can absorb and synthesize huge amounts of data that the human brain perhaps cannot do. Ability of AI to answer any question reasonably well using all the global knowledge made available to it, summarize enormous amount of data and text quickly, quickly draw a complex picture based on instructions given verbally, predict a trend, recognize and highlight a specific face in a fraction of a second from millions of faces, write code based on simple English instructions, are all examples where the speed and accuracy of underlying computation is delivering what human being cannot match. However, there are several areas where human beings are trying to improve AI so that it can, some day, match or exceed capability that human beings themselves already have. Examples of this include the ability of AI to completely replace a human driver safely in all situations, understand full context or an intent behind a statement, carry out complex and well-coordinated mechanical activity in response to various unpredictable situations, react appropriately by correctly assessing the emotions at play, integrate generated code appropriately in the existing larger systems landscape, and so on. In such cases, AI is not exhibiting any capability that is humanly impossible to match. On the contrary, AI is trying to catch up with what humans can do easily. In other words, in these areas, AI is trying to become what humans already are. This very aspect separates AI driven technology revolution from all the previous ones. Direct Competition It is often said that AI and humans will co-exist in the future, and people will need to change their ways of working. It is obvious that AI is also going to directly compete with humans in many sectors. Equipment with an embedded chip on-board do compete with humans even today. A case in point is household equipment such as ‘intelligent’ washing machines and dish-washers where robots to do vacuum cleaning and floor mopping do compete with humans offering these services. A human household help can perform these activities far better than what a machine can do. However, given an affordable choice, an increasing number of households prefer machines over human maid services for a reason. Human household help may not always be punctual, sincere, honest, and reliable. But machines are. Uncontrolled emotions, anger, frustration, laziness, indiscipline, absenteeism do affect humans - but not AI driven machines (at least till the time AI itself acquires emotions of its own, and becomes self-aware some day). This aspect of comparison between AI and humans is likely to become far more prominent and consequential as AI driven machines and robots become more and more intelligent and thereby start competing far more effectively with human capability in many spheres. Competition is said to bring about improvement. Just as AI improves itself through continuous learning to mimic human behaviour and actions, human workforce also needs to improve itself by avoiding behavioural issues and inefficiencies referred to above. Otherwise, humans would lose the natural advantage that they still enjoy over AI, and which is likely to continue even in the foreseeable future. Employers or consumers in the labour-intensive service sector will accept AI driven machines and robots with all its known limitations if it turns out to be a better net-net deal in comparison to services offered by humans. This specific aspect has tremendous significance for India. Many Countries from the developed world do not have a young population with reasonably good IQ in required numbers. India, on the other hand, has it in abundance. One could compare it with abundant availability of Thorium or Sunlight in India as compared to the Western world. Consequently, unlike many Countries in the world that have a Uranium centric approach towards nuclear energy, India's approach needs to be centered around Thorium. India's strategy related to renewable, non-conventional, green energy needs to be based on solar power. Indian Context Strategies for adopting AI in the Indian context need to be similarly tailored for the Indian context. India needs to adopt AI in the areas where it clearly has an advantage over humans in terms of speed, throughput, ease of use, accuracy, and efficiency. However, the use of AI needs to be judiciously controlled in areas where AI is trying to catch up with the capabilities of the human mind and body. Several labour-intensive services such as drivers, caregivers for the elderly people, parcel delivery, security guards, maintenance and repair of various equipment, are all examples in that category. Educational policies and overall work culture in the Country needs to appreciate this reality. Just as AI experts are trying hard to 'teach' AI algorithms and improve them through supervised learning, another set of experts need to sensitize and teach humans on how to understand, appreciate, preserve, and further hone the significant natural advantage that they already have over AI. Despite all the technological breakthroughs in AI, in many areas, still, it is a battle that humans will lose only if they choose to. (The writer works in the Information Technology sector. Views personal.)

The Sule and Fadnavis Saga

Updated: Nov 15, 2024

the Sule and Fadnavis Saga

Mumbai: In the season of political fireworks and mudslinging, most other wars pale in the face of the war of words between Devendra Fadnavis and Supriya Sule. Barely two days ago, Fadnavis called Sharad Pawar the “owner of a fake narrative factory”, a statement that was condemned by the NCP (SP)’s top brass while Ajit Pawar maintained a “no personal remarks of Sharad Pawar” policy.


Only a week earlier, the NCP (SP)’s working president Sule had demanded Fadnavis’s resignation accusing him of treason for leaking confidential government files to Ajit Pawar. The file in question was the one which had orders for an investigation into Ajit for his alleged role in a multi-crore irrigation scam. The controversy was raked up by Ajit himself when he accused former home minister of the NCP, R R Patil for signing on this file supposedly to get Ajit into trouble. “A case should be filed against Fadnavis and he should resign. This is treason against the state and the people of Maharashtra who had voted for him to be the CM,” Sule said during a public rally in Kolhapur.


This isn’t the first time that Sule has made Fadnavis the target of her political anger with the BJP. She has systematically targeted him specifically in his role as the home minister of Maharashtra. Last year, she accused him of ‘breaking’ the Pawar family by getting Ajit Pawar to split the NCP. In the gruesome Pune Porsche case where a young man and woman were mowed down and the accused were initially let off lightly, she demanded Fadnavis’ resignation as an inept home minister. After the heinous Badlapur case where a school sweeper was accused of raping two nursery-going toddlers, the feisty Member of Parliament trained her guns on Fadnavis.


The Pawar-Fadnavis rivalry isn’t a new one. Also, it goes beyond the battle for political one upmanship. A member of the NCP (SP) recalls that Fadnavis had tried to break the supremacy of the NCP patriarch by side-stepping him as he took over as chief minister of Maharashtra. He realised that the influence of the NCP and the Congress stemmed from cooperatives—milk, sugar, banks or poultry and Fadnavis tried making in-roads into those to spread the BJP’s wings into what was traditionally NCP-Congress territory. That apparently was an initial point of conflict. Pawar didn’t fail to publicly remind Fadnavis that he had been friends with the then new chief minister’s father, Gangadharrao Fadnavis.


It is no secret that senior leaders of all parties consult with Pawar senior on crucial matters of the state, according him the regard that a senior leader commands. Be it Uddhav Thackeray or even Eknath Shinde as the chief minister, they have publicly acknowledged Pawar’s “guidance” on matters as varied as farmer concerns, Covid management and cooperatives. “Even politicians who have crossed over to other parties still maintain a warm rapport with him. An example is Uday Samant. Even Raj Thackeray may criticise him during public speeches but personally, shares a good relationship. That’s the kind of politics he enjoys; not one of animosity,” says NCP (SP) politician.


Their rivalry is nothing more than political chess, with each waiting to ‘checkmate’ the other. With Pawar refraining from making political remarks on his opponents, the NCP (SP)’s charge against Fadnavis and the BJP is led by Sule.


“Pawar and Sule enjoy good relations with most politicians across party lines. Fadnavis is an exception. He tried to break their party stronghold of western Maharashtra’s cooperatives,” says the NCP (SP) leader.

This mutual dislike isn’t new. Way back in 2016, Sule had likened Fadnavis to “women who fight at community water taps” further stating that he was unable to handle the responsibility that came with the chief minister’s position.


The rivalry had further deepened over the years. Fadnavis tried to break the undivided NCP’s chances of forming the government in 2009 by planning a midnight coup that involved wooing Ajit Pawar and other MLAs. The attempt, although unsuccessful, wasn’t forgotten by the Pawars. The second blow came when Ajit split the party, allegedly at the behest of Fadnavis and the BJP, supposedly compelled by the charges the investigative agencies had levelled against him. “There is real bitterness between them,” says the NCP (SP) politician.


With this background, Sule doesn’t miss an opportunity to hit back at Fadnavis who has managed to hurt her family and her party. As Pawar’s daughter, she is set to carry on the rivalry and avenge the damage her father has suffered.

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