AI short story
My son has gone out with his
friends. He has informed us that he would reach home only after dinner and no
need of waiting for him. Hence me and my wife had dinner at 9 pm as usual and
sat on our sofa to watch some TV program. May be due to the difficult day and
lot of hard work, she felt tired and went to bed. Although I was also tired, I
have decided to continue watching TV programs for some more time.
There was no other sound except the
TV channel and I shifted channels couple of times and settled down with some
tech shows where the presenter was interviewing some tech gurus in the IT
industry. The subject was the risks of artificial intelligence and how it is
going to affect humanity. The tech gurus are articulating the negative effects.
I already knew that AI would replace humans in many jobs, but I was surprised
that it is just only a minor risk. I fearfully heard from the gurus the endless
predatory actions AI combined with robotics and other technologies can do to
humanity. I was imagining a world that is unfolding in front of us similar to
that of one in the 2004 movie “I,Robot”. Time passed and I was still at the
sofa. I was staring at the TV screen still, may be with fearful thoughts of our
future without jobs and the AI controlled robots replaced our govt, army,
police and all the public and private institutions and businesses, trade, manufacture,
farming and everything we can imagine.
I don’t know how much time I stayed
like that, but only till I started getting an uncomfortable feeling that
someone is in the room other than me. I looked around and to my astonishment, I
found a man who looks like made up of compressed light. My first feeling was
utmost fear, as I could understand that he is not an ordinary man.
With trembling voice, I asked
myself: “Am I dreaming or is this real”.
He replied: “Son, don’t worry. I am
God”
I couldn’t understand a thing
around, I have even forgotten where I am. I had a mixed feeling of fear,
astonishment and intrigue. Finally, I gathered some courage to speak.
Me: “God, are you real? Although I
used to go to church every Sunday, I wasn’t sure…..”
God: “That’s not new to me. Almost
all people from all faiths are like you. They go to their places of worship and
pray to me with different styles. You are no different…but anyway I don’t care
about such silly things.”
Me: “Okay God, what made you meet me
in person. I am surprised and excited to see you. I never heard anyone in my
friends-circle got a chance like this.”
God: “I don’t choose anyone
particularly as I am keen to talk to everyone. I live in the thoughts of all
humans I have created but rarely anyone will hear me talking. You just happened
to hear my voice, and actually I am more pleased than you.”
I was speechless. God continued…
God: “Why are you so much worried
about the progress of technology…especially with artificial intelligence. You seem
to be really in fear.”
Me:” God, I just learned from
experts that AI can really ruin the world order. It can replace humans from
jobs, acquire skills instantly that humans will not be able to match….Ultimately
machines may rein over humans”.
God: “Do you really think machines
will be able to do that?”
Me:”Hmm….God…I don’t know….I am not
sure !!”
God: “Look here my dear. Every time
humans made something new, this fear was there. When you made fire, it could
have burned anything and everything…but you mastered it….can you imagine the
world without using fire ?!. Take any innovations you made….there were possible
misuse with everything new, but over a period of time you learned how to master
it…”
Me:”But God, AI is different. This
is the first time a tool that we made simulates our brain…..and may be our
human faculties cannot match the machine with its vast memory and huge
knowledge. When other technologies such as mechatronics provide a physical
form, it has brain and body far exceeding the human abilities.”
God:”Stop panicking. Let me tell you
that you are ignoring one fundamental lesson learned by you all.”
Me:”What’s that God ?”
God:”The knowledge you have acquired
so far is not even the tip of an iceberg compared to what you are yet to
acquire. It was evident each time you discovered something new…Every time you
find something new, you guys think that you reached almost at the end of your
learning, which is the case even now. Yes, AI is a great leap forward…but it is
also just another one”
Me:”But, what if this discovery make
us redundant ?”
God:”My son, You must understand
that AI is not going to make you redundant. Surely some of the work that you
guys are doing will become easy to do with the help of machine….it is the same
shift when you moved from bullock cart to locomotive….do you understand?”
Me:”But that shift was easy for us
to understand….but this one is huge…it is going to affect everything and
everyone, I suppose”.
God:”You guys are overwhelmed and
not thinking rationally with just a few strides such as a large language model
like GPT3, Bard and few others to come which would be even better. See, these
are advanced tools which are getting better and better along with humans are
getting matured and require more sophisticated tools.”
God continued: “For AI to become
even similar to human mind, artificial intelligence will have to reach a stage
of general intelligence, which is something similar to human curiosity. Such
curiosity combined with an unguided ability to gather and share skills should
become eventually another level of intelligence….this is an area that will take
an extremely long way to perfect…and mind you, each implementation require a
huge effort to train and perfect. This will require appropriate human
innovation and determination to reach there. By that time, humans would have mastered
the rules of the game, just like issuing a driving license to a driver which
will make him fit for purpose but safe of other people on the road.
God then took a sigh and laughed
before saying the next sentence: “And also remember my son, you guys forget one
important thing…that self-awareness cannot be created artificially…that is my
territory and I have to give it, if I wish. No computer will ever have
self-awareness. I have given self-awareness to my creations. Although humans
were given the highest level of talents on earth, humans can never create any
machine that has self-awareness. Machines will become super or hyper capable of
being the best tool that you can imagine now and more in the future. But never
will be like a human.
Me:”I understand…but may take a bit
of time to digest this whole concept of general intelligence and
self-awareness. But I am greatly relieved now…..that this is part of our
evolution we need to just adapt to new challenges and changes in a positive
manner”
God: ”Absolutely. Use your new tools
to make a world better for all humanity…that’s what you should aim for.”
Me:”Can I ask a question which is
outside this topic ?”
God:”Sure, go ahead”
Me:”You mentioned the humans were
given the highest level of talents on earth.”
God:”That’s right…what’s your
question ?”
Me:”In that case, are you saying
there are creations with higher talents than humans somewhere outside of our
solar system…or milkyway ?”
God smiled, and came closer to me
and said: “On earth, only a human being will have this curiosity. All
technologies will eventually help you quest your curiosity….I will not give you
an answer for your this question. You need to find this on your own. “
Me:”Sorry God, if I upset you…”
God:”Not at all….and….All the best”.
God vanished without a trace, and I
was still in the mood to ask a few more questions, but I was relaxed with my
reassuring dialogue. My son woke me up, gently shaking me on my shoulder.
Son:”Appa, why are you sleeping on
the couch. Why don’t you go and sleep on your bed ?”
I was about to tell him first that I
was having tech-talk with God, but swallowed the sentence and just said “OK”
and walked towards my bedroom.
