AI short story

 

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.