Page 49 - NAMAH-Apr-2022

Namah Artificial Intelligence

It reminds me of Omar Khayyam: machines could share the sky with birds and
kites and could clean the air that would be
“Into this Universe, and why not knowing, great too. I know AI glasses help autistic
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing: people read emotions. But I suspect there
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, are devices making normal humans autistic.
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing. I have seen people laugh at jokes on their
phones, but cannot read sorrow in their
What, without asking, hither hurried whence? mothers’ eyes. Some men would be happier if
And, without asking, whither hurried hence! they had married machines, and some women
Another and another Cup to drown are sure their husbands have indeed married
The Memory of this Impertinence (1)!” machines.
Replacing handmade pottery with a mass- Cultural loss
produced cup is an impertinence. Taking away
the livelihood of a needle artist with machine Pacific Islanders could tell the location of
embroidery is an impertinence. Sure, a machine islands in open seas by studying the waves
is more efficient and talks less nonsense. And hitting against their boats. Now wireless
now with Artificial Intelligence, they are almost technology gives them more information. Is
as good as humans, which means they can the Pacific Islander richer by it? An Eskimo
answer back smartly. They can also choose could survive in a blizzard because he knew
from multiple options but can they choose the wind and the land like a migratory bird
what’s best for their soul — hardly, for they knows its route. Now there is no need to
have no soul. Will they choose what’s best for live in severe cold or heat when machines
their owner’s soul? Probably not, because an can conjure up the right temperature. The
AI machine can at best judge what it has been medicine man heard plants whisper him
taught to judge. The algorithm was written remedies. But now there’s no one who
by human minds, and the data it chews is would learn from him. His children believe
fed by human behaviours. On the contrary, in laboratory experiments and factory-made
human biases get amplified in AI. pills. Language, beliefs, cultures, communion
with Nature, openings to other realms and
I would not let an AI machine judge anything spiritual connections are getting snapped.
that has remotely to do with humans; like But man is still curious to push the envelope.
who is being hired, who is under-performing, So he ventures into dark terrains, such as
who needs to be barred from entering a club, how to hack into a banking-system, or create
who gets to own a gun, who qualifies for a dirty movies, or type up hurtful comments.
loan. My ideal AI machine would be a beetle- Machines are making humans redundant by
sized stealth bomber that gobbles mosquitoes taking away their skilled jobs. And a human
and takes them on a magic carpet ride until without any natural skill is truly redundant
of course they starve to death in the beetle’s — Nature may think so too. And we know
belly. Another is an army of small devices that she can retire useless species.
swim in the sea eating up non-biodegradable
waste and making of them dense bricks that We want AI to solve problems, not create new
can be used in construction. Of course if AI ones. We want Alexa to tell us to be kind to

49