Chat GPT has almost colonised discussions on Artificial Intelligence. High school children are excited about getting their homework done by ChatGPT. !
But such excitement with new technology is not new. Just a few years ago, there was excitement about AI competing against AlphaGO, or the American quiz television show — Jeopardy, or chess with Deep Blue. AI was seen as an ultimate technology that will improve human life and reduce suffering soon.
But as with any other journey, the AI path has also been full of challenges and failures. Many tech companies have seen initiatives fail — IBM’s Watson Health, Tesla’s Autopilot crash, and many more.
Organisations have made failure itself a preferred way of working. ‘Fail Fast’ is the way forward for AI. This ensures that with or without success in AI, financial success and continuity are assured. The list of companies that are working on AI technologies is increasing by the day, so are the technologies that are being developed.
The focus on ‘fail fast’ innovation has helped advance technologies. As the well-known author Yuval Harari wrote: “Humans will learn the working on the brain but will still not understand the mind”. The AI mind is still unknown, given the multiple direction in which the AI progress is happening; convergence is challenging, there is chaos all around. There is increasing acceptance of multiple views of truth.
While humans will continue to make progress in understanding the workings of the brain, it is possible that a complete understanding of the mind and body may remain elusive.
The Hindu scriptures provide some guidance. The Circle of life has worked for humans, and it will continue for AI, which will see innovation, preservation of a few innovations, and a few failures. However, the cycle will continue perpetually.
The moksha of AI development needs good karma powered with “Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, purity, tolerance, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, and religiousness — these are the qualities by which the brahmanas work.” (Bhagwad Gita 18.42).
A few decades down the line, when the full human DNA is uncovered, when there’s super-computing power in every mobile, AI is able to recreate mind and body, etc., new challenges will come up.
The danger is that if we invest too much in developing AI and too little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated AI of computers might only serve to empower the natural stupidity of humans. The way froward is to control the chaos in human mind and not imitate it with AI.
The writer is Deputy General Manager - Industrial AI – Hitachi. Views are personal