The now of today
Recently, Sony Marathi screened a 40-episode series titled “Post Office Ughade Ahe”, meaning post office is open. The story, set in 1997, is a humorous account of goings on in a post office in a small village, Pargaon, in Maharashtra. The employees, drawn from the village, have bare minimum educational qualification to carry out mundane jobs of the post office. One fine morning, the post office receives a notice about imminent computerisation of the post office. Two seniors are sent for training about computer operations. As only to be expected, they learn and absorb very little during training. The entire post office struggles once the computers are installed in the post office. The chief post master does not believe in computer and uses every trick in the book to oppose computerisation. In the end, the entire staff comes around, gets trained to use the computers and they live happily ever after.
Unfortunately, this sort of stories kept on repeating during the entire span of human existence on earth. Be it the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution of mid-20th century, the electronics revolution, the digital age, the advances in biological understanding and now, the emergence of artificial intelligence. This problem was aptly illustrated by Alvin Toffler in his book, “The future shock” way back in 1970’s. He summarises that human being is incapable of adapting to fast changes in his day-to-day environment. Those who fail to keep up pace with change, perish. Nothing is constant, only change is constant.
Everybody was predicting the emergence of AI (Artificial Intelligence) for some time now. But no one realised that it was at your doorstep.
Suddenly it is looming large and it has set the cat among the pigeons.
Take the example of Indian software industry, the one entity which is supposed to know all about AI. After corona, the software industry boomed, the exports surged and people made money in stock markets. But two years down the line, due to financial crisis in the global market, the industry is facing a slump. Add to that, the recent turmoil created by AI. It has become clear now that the software industry will see a sea change in the next few years. Many administrative jobs will be lost. Low level coding as we understand it today will no longer exist. Entry level jobs will go kaput. Reports from US, the largest supplier of software jobs, indicate that suddenly jobs are not available. Lots of Indian students with MS degrees are staring at bleak future.
So, what does the crystal ball say? It says that you need to re-skill yourself, just like the post office employees of Pargaon did in 1997. It is not enough to know just the basics of software.
New jobs will become available in near future which will require new sets of skills. Even those who are working in other fields like HR, Administration, law, commerce, stock markets and even arts will need to know basics of AI. They need to adopt new techniques. So, gone are the days where you just hop on a flight to US, get an MS degree and live happily ever. Beware, big road blocks ahead!
I do not claim to have knowledge of AI. I just explored a few things with basic AI tools. To be frank, I was not unduly impressed. It has lot of flaws. But I think it will only become better in a short time.
If anyone wishes to write an article, explaining what is AI to a lay person, be my guest. I will be more than happy to post it as a guest article on this platform.
Comments
Most of us would certainly like to read informative article on subject. I am similar to a person in village post office as far as AI goes
By : Vaijayanti Palkar
Yes what you have written is absolutely true. In our earlier days we were also little bit hesitant to learn computer but we got adjusted with this new trend and now we realized it really save lit of time. Thanks
By : Jayant Divekar
Whenever I read such articles, the first thought comes in my mind is 'thank god I am spared from this chaos.'Survival of the fittest will prove the capacity of human intelligence over artificial intelligence.
By : Pratibha Tarabadkar
Shashank, We face Future Shock with almost every new big invention. Industrial Revolution was one of the big shock way back when . Now AI feels like in wrong hands it can disrupt lives .
By : Mohini chitre
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By : anjali
I am not an expert of AI, but I know enough to understand how it works. In its simplest form, you can think of it as a model: you have some known data (training data), you fit a model to it (it could be as simple as a straight line, or a polynomial or a complex neural network) and then use that ‘model’ to predict answers for similar unknown situations. Agreed it is over simplified, but you get the picture. The point, however, is that once you have some semblance of understanding, you will start having more faith in it. I am sure the post office folks of 1997 were very curious about how that damn computer does what it does, but they went along with it. Welcome to the new world of AI.
By : Mani Subramanian
Shashank very nice article. Post office concept itself must have been beyond reach of many people at that point of time. Telegram and money order concept must have been beyond imagination. So was radio, television and many more. Computerization was the next big change. Human nature is to oppose at first place and then slowly get acclamatized to it. I have no knowledge about AI but have been reading a lot about ChatGPT. Would love to read your thought provoking stories.
By : Shirish joshi
Mr. Purandare, so glad to see your posts and blogs. The above topic is indeed relevant and "IN". Recently I came across an article in the Economic Times ( 2nd May 2023 ) , " The Godfather of AI" leaves Google, warns of Danger ahead !!! This is Geoffrey Hinton. He was the pioneer of AI. Today he says, gnawing at many industries is a fear that they are releasing something dangerous into the wild ..and that generative AI can be a tool for misinformation and a risk to jobs. The other day a colleague of mine from Austria, said she had appointed a new secretary and had asked her to write something. When the secretary came back in a jiffy with the write-up, immaculately written, my friend was a bit taken aback ... she said , " So quick and efficient"... !!?? the secretary sensed , she had been 'caught', promptly blurted out ... " ma'am ChatGPT ". I wonder and thunder and shift uneasily in my chair, thinking ... will this generation even think ? Will they move ? Will they learn to cook? Most of them have a forlorn look on their faces... ! I feel they need help , real help and somebody to tell them ... improve on other skills than just passing the IBs, Cambridge, etc. Thank you for reading.
By : Madhavi Mauskar Kharshikar
AI has been looming for past few years and I am excited for how it will transform medical technology and scientific progress. There is always fear for the unknown and retooling is the only way generation can stay young!
By : Aashish
Shashank very nice article. Post office concept itself is very interesting. Those were the days when everyone eagerly waited for postman. It was beyond reach of many people at that point of time. Telegram and money order concept must have been beyond imagination. Likewise telephone radio, television and many more. Computerization was the big boom to next level. We love to read your thought provoking stories. Great job.
By : Margaret Dsouza
Artificial intelligence is going to impact sectors like science and research, economics, finance and Banking, Engineering, healthcare, Education, HR, etc beyond our imagination and that day is not far where global politics and Warfare strategies would rotate around power game and survival. Additionally we are attracting nature's curse such as rapidly changing climatic conditions. We should not be surprised if humans become enemy of each other. In a way I feel almighty has its own plan to lead us towards technology disaster followed by Don of a NEW ERA.
By : Neelambari Sachin Umalkar
Please read Don as dawn
By : Admin