Samvaad 2024 @ Praxis Business School

 Welcome to Samvaad @ Praxis Business School. It is my pleasure to welcome Mr. Devendra Pagnis, Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Ms. Shabina Omar, and other distinguished speakers on this beautiful day to our even more beautiful campus.

Samvaad refers to conversations, dialogue and chat. Today, when we mention chat, the first thing that comes to mind is ChatGPT, the ubiquitous AI model that has taken the world by storm. This makes Samvaad an appropriate name for our conversation about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the workplace. In a more traditional sense, a conversation is what differentiates humans from animals and the ability to converse is a leitmotif for intelligence. So today we will have a conversation about how humans are and will be impacted by artificial intelligence.

We know by now that AI will eliminate many jobs in the corporate world and cause significant hardship. It is easy to claim that it will not be as severe as anticipated. Historically, we are told,  technology creates more jobs than it destroys. When the industrial revolution made blue collar workers redundant, they moved to the service sector - in finance, hospitality, and entertainment. When automation eliminated white-collar jobs, it created more positions in the tech sector, and India's IT industry is a testament to that. So when ChatGPT and other large language models eliminate jobs, they will also create new opportunities. But what exactly will be the jobs that will be created? There is no clear answer. Honestly, there is really nothing on the horizon that will keep thousands of people meaningfully employed. We can hope for the best, but we must prepare for the worst.

Can we put restrictions on AI? We could but it is unlikely that we would be successful in stopping its triumphant march. There is no army that can stop an idea whose time has come. Time! Chronos, remember that word, I will come back to it a little later.

One possible way to soften the blow is to consider Universal Basic Income. Let people be jobless, but provide them some money so they do not create social unrest. Political parties in India are already implementing a version of Universal Basic Income by giving cash handouts to various groups - women, farmers and others. But the sustainability of this strategy is debatable. How long can this continue before states and the nation itself go bankrupt? Not for too long, but then what? The answer lies in the future, hidden in the womb of futurity.

Unlike the unknown future, we have historical precedents. Both in the very distant past and in more recent times.

100,000 years ago, there were at least nine species of humans - or hominims - on Earth. Today, only one species, Homo Sapiens, survives. All others have been eliminated for various reasons. Remember, the word Sapiens comes from our ability to think. Closer in time, during the 14th and 15th centuries, European civilization wiped out the native civilizations of North and South America and Australia. In this case, the species was the same, but the civilizations were different. Today, we face a similar situation.

Artificial Intelligence, or what historian Yuval Noah Harari refers to as Alien Intelligence, is the new threat confronting Homo Sapiens. Just as Homo Sapiens were the threat that eliminated Homo Neanderthalensis, these "Neo Sapiens" represent a real threat to us. We must not underestimate this threat or ignore it.

But what can we, as Homo Sapiens, do to protect ourselves from this new species spreading across the planet? During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had a vaccine, but what do we have in this case?

I wish I had a clear and definitive answer, but I must disappoint you. I do not have an instant solution. Instead, let me share with you something that you might find interesting.

Looking back to the past and forward to the future requires us to examine Time more closely. In India, we refer to time as Mahakal, which translates to Megachron. Speaking of Megachron, I would like to talk about a science fiction trilogy, the Chronos Trilogy, that I have been writing for the past five years. These novels -- the last of which was published last month -- explore how humans and machines, Homo Sapiens and Neo Sapiens, will or might coexist on Earth and other planets over the next 500 years. 

In our Indic philosophy, Tantra means knowledge, Yantra means a device to delineate and discover this knowledge, and Mantra is the code to unlock the Yantra and Tantra. Within this framework, my three novels - Chronotantra, Chronoyantra, and ChronoMantra - investigate how humans and machines will evolve and exist together. I do have a vision and I wish I could provide a synopsis of what I anticipate will happen, but it is too complex for a short session like this. If you truly want to understand, you would need to read these three books.

In summary, there is or could be a way to resolve this conflict, but only if we recognize that this is not merely a technological or economic threat. We are facing a new species, a new civilization that is encroaching on our territory. This is a clash of civilisations. A clash conjures up visions of hostility. Is there an alternative that is cordial and amicable? That is the theme that is explored in this science fiction trilogy.