“Artificial intelligence is much talked about but little understood. Adopted by many but really implemented in a deep sense by a few now, artificial general intelligence is causing great excitement because the interface is very human – it has a conversational ability and it multitasks,” said Shubhranshu Singh, chief marketing officer of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles.
The DNPA Conclave and Awards 2024 kicked off in New Delhi with a focus on the future of digital media during AI-led transformation and the relationship between news publishers and Big Tech platforms.
Singh asked the panellists for their views on AI and how real this transformation would be.
According to Suresh Prabhu, former Union Cabinet Minister, “AI is here to stay. As we go along, we will see more and more dimensions of it. As time passes and more experience is gained, artificial intelligence will become more inclusive than it is today.”
From a social perspective, the question was: What impact will AI have on livelihoods and jobs?
Studying the impact
Prabhu said, “Artificial intelligence will impact everything. There are examples where jobs are being lost due to obsolescence of technology and many other reasons. Now, we are seeing AI virtually challenging human beings themselves. What sort of an impact it will have on the job profile of the people is very crucial because it is their livelihood.”
Prabhu asserted that the impact of AI would need to be studied dispassionately, objectively, and specific to the country likely to be affected. According to the International Monetary Fund, almost 40 percent of jobs would be affected worldwide.
“We have to be cautious and conscious at the same time about its implications. Therefore, we must study it properly,” explained Prabhu.
Sanjay Sindhwani, chief executive officer of The Indian Express Digital, was of the opinion that AI would throw up opportunities but would lead to a lot of disruption, especially in the white-collared world.
Doctors, lawyers and journalists are being affected due to AI. Sindhwani said that acceptance would be very difficult to digest because assumptions were made that such jobs are secure.
“But change is constant. A lot of people will have to unlearn and relearn as to how to use this technology and become more efficient,” Sindhwani said.
Kevin Vaz, chief executive officer of Viacom18, agreed with Sindhwani on change being constant.
“AI has always been there. Today, we are seeing different forms of AI. We are talking about Generative AI… AI will disrupt sectors, it will disrupt industries and our lives both personally and professionally,” said Vaz.
For Sabina Dewan, president and executive director of JustJobs Network, the role of the media is to reveal the truth. According to Dewan, AI is threatening the very fabric of truth through deep fakes and misinformation. There will be disruptions not just in the low-skilled category but high-skilled categories.
“The AI revolution is much beyond anything that we have seen with technology before. There is very little place for workers to even go to. There is very little access to skills training, upskilling for many people. It is a quantity of jobs issue, it is a quality of jobs issue, it’s a quality of access issue.”
Humans at the centre
Singh of Tata Motors asked if in the coming years, the distinction between fake and the real would be eliminated.
“With the arrival of AI, will it take away the ability to create content?” he asked.
According to Vaz, whether it is sports, movies or serials, at the centre are human beings who are actually creators and the consumer. And, it would be very difficult to remove humans from that ecosystem.
Vaz said that when data analytics entered the picture a few years ago, everybody was of the opinion that it would change storytelling.
“People will look at it from the past and write a story. They will look at the best high points, they will look at consumer behaviour and chart out a story. But, it never happened,” he said.
But he said each kind of technology helps enhance the creative process. It’s all about how it can be used.
“If we use AI in the right way, we can help enhance the creative process. And, consumers will benefit from it,” Vaz added.
A question that Singh posed to Sindhwani was how to differentiate the real from the fake in the world of AI.
Sindhwani said that in the context of journalism, a large part is venturing out, seeing things in society and then writing about them. Sindhwani said this will continue to happen.
“In the digital world, there is a lot of armchair reporting that this medium has inculcated. There is no need for people to rewrite content. The machine will do it for you. Machines will not add value. It will only pull out content from what it has historically learnt from. It cannot create, imagine or see into the future. That is where human intelligence comes into the picture,” he said.
A couple of months ago, X (previously Twitter) owner Elon Musk, who was in Great Britain for an AI summit, said that “there will come a point where no job is needed.”
Prabhu, speaking on the impact of AI on livelihoods, added that it will affect all three segments of the economy, including services.
More than 50 percent of the GDP is coming from services. Seventy percent of the rural population is dependent on agriculture, which contributes 17 percent to the GDP, stated reports. “Let us have a dispassionate objective study for each sector,” he said.
Need for regulation
Singh asked Dewan if she would ever take legal advice from an algorithm, and allow an online programme to file her taxes.
“I use AI. The effects are hugely disruptive, particularly in the context of the Indian labour market,” she said. “Our economy is not creating enough jobs to begin with. Then you introduce a huge disruptor like AI, which has applications for everything from automation, algorithms, implications for gig work, coding, etc. We don’t have a regulatory framework, social welfare or social system that can help shelter, transition, etc.”
Dewan went on to highlight the need to urgently come up with regulation that allows human beings to catch up with the disruptive effects of technology.
On the subject of governmental perspective on whether it was time to start regulating AI in India, Prabhu explained that AI was evolving at this stage.
“We must have a global convention on the ethics of new technology. Regulating technology is always a challenge because technology is always one step ahead of what the government can think. What is important is not preventing technological innovation. We should not attempt to stop it. There should be ethics of new technology development in the world. If there are global conventions on ethics or technology, let technology develop, what is the harm in that? But once technology develops, it is in nobody’s control,” Prabhu said.
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