It’s conflict with “Natural Intelligence” and the rapid rise of moral dilemmas
The other day, I was reading an article about how ChatGPT can be used to write a note on a particular subject. Initially, I doubted its capability to write a note and hence was reluctant to use it. But after some nudge, I finally decided to give it a try. And to my astonishment, it came up with a pretty decent note! On the first instance, it seemed perfect. But, as my instinct told me earlier, the note was far away from being perfect and in one instance, it even incorporated wrong information. This reminded me of a famous old adage- नक़ल में भी अकल की ज़रूरत होती है!
If we look over the last few centuries, we have witnesses that the technology has made it possible to do many things better and on a much larger scale than a human being, but the catch here is this- that thing should have been done by a human being already in some way or the other. Meaning that the technology cannot by itself do something new. For example, if you code a computer how to calculate numbers, it can do faster than even a human and on a scale which is beyond human capability. But, computers can only do as much as it is coded. It doesn’t have its own intelligence. Another example is that of a robot, which can do stuff like handling customer complaints in a pre-programmed manner. But, everyone knows how much efficient and effective these computer-managed customer complaints are (pun intended :D). If you don’t believe that, try getting your airline ticket refund back from a computer-managed system. In the end after getting frustrated from the computer generated response, you will have to press “9” on your mobile phone, to talk to a human and get the issue resolved.
Similarly, people who are using AI like ChatGPT these days, can only extract as much data/information/content from it, as is available on the internet domain already. So, what it essentially does is to collate the available information and present it to you in a customized fashion. In that sense, it can surpass the intelligence of an average person. For example, it can write an essay on “How does an aeroplane fly” better than 99.99% of the human beings on this earth! But what ChatGPT cannot do is to create a completely new thing from the scratch. For example, it cannot write a new book with new knowledge/experience/imagination. ChatGPT cannot create a Harry Potter series! It cannot write new court judgements! It cannot write a heartfelt poem! It cannot tackle new problems faced by humanity! All it can do is plagiarism on a massive scale to create an artificial world of artificial intelligence, which will challenge average human intelligence immensely in times to come. But, it can never challenge extraordinary human intelligence, which has to be preserved, nurtured and shared to tackle the upcoming challenges put forth by AI. And for that matter, artificial intelligence can never overpower emotional intelligence. Because a machine, howsoever sophisticated it maybe, can never mimic the human emotions in its natural form.
Nevertheless, AI can still cause huge moral dilemmas for the humanity as a whole. Thus, it is all the more important that we cannot let a Frankenstein monster in the form of AI let loose on ourselves that will eat its own master and pose new moral dilemmas like human job loss in service sector, technology sectors etc. Another moral dilemma will be the increasing income gap between the rich and the poor, because the rich and educated will use AI to overpower the average intelligence of the poor and less educated and thus there will be further concentration of wealth in the hands of a few smart people. Another good example is that of a driverless car developed by the companies like Google. This driverless car cannot make critical judgments vis-a-vis human drivers, in the case of new eventualities like haphazard traffic movement and accident situations.
Therefore, in the upcoming era of “Artificial Intelligence”, I hope that we don’t lose track of “Natural Intelligence”. It is a matter of deep concern that children are now being taught through this AI and are being encouraged to use AI tools to do their assignments. I am not against AI, but my concern is that the AI should only be used to supplement and not supplant Natural extraordinary human intelligence. We don’t want a world where all intelligence is only stored in the machines and the people are dependent on them for their basic day-to-day functions. We want thinking individuals who can think on their own feet and not dumb generation who pull out their mobiles even to calculate a 43+78. And we want individuals who can make value judgments about how, when and to what extent the AI tools should be used. Morality cannot be sacrificed at the altar of Artificial Intelligence, lest it can challenge the humanity as a whole!
Disclaimer- This article was not written by a ChatGPT! 😛
Footnotes
Mr. Noam Chomsky is Bang on target! I fully agree that ChatGPT is nothing but a “high tech plagiarism” and a “way to avoid learning”.
We don’t want humans to be robots, we want them to be thinking individuals, which is a unique ability given by the God to us humans, which no robot however advanced it may be can ever replicate except doing some routine repetitive jobs which don’t require new thinking regularly.
Couldn’t agree more with Chief Human Resources Officer of TCS that AI tools like ChatGPT can at best be collaborators but can’t replace jobs.
Mr. Murthy is Bang on Target. He opined that no computer can compete with the power of human mind….
Anupam- The Dreamer 
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