Is Society heading towards a hero or a zero culture? The Road between Zero Tolerance and Exceptional Patronage is narrowing!

Dear Friends and Students

When Google AI chatbot Bard answered incorrectly the question, “What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year-old about?", immediately Google shares lose more than $100 billion! Twitter lost more than 1.3 million users in the week after Elon Musk bought it. Microsoft invests $10 Billion Investment into ChatGPT after initial success which is again owned by Elon Musk! One simple event is changing the world, deciding the products and lives!

We bought our first TV in 1985. The antenna is well-connected to the TV. The birds love to get perched on the antenna top. A little wind used to change the channel from DD New Delhi to DD Ceylon (Now Sri Lanka). Our TV content used to be dependent on weather conditions, electrical interference, weak signal, and atmospheric pressure! We used to have a roster-level duty to change the direction of the antenna using long sticks! Does this generation possess this level of patience?

One Instagram picture viral is creating rivals in no time span! If the picture gets 100,000 likes, then it becomes viral. This is the age we are living in. If Lakh people can decide the rise or fall of an individual. With so much information available and so many people able to share their opinions, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction, and easy to get caught up in emotional reactions rather than rational thinking.

The same culture is deep diving into our day-to-day lives. If a +2 student doesn't get a 99th percentile or above in JEE, their family is utterly disappointed. If a UG student doesn’t get a 20+ Lakhs offer, their family is disillusioned. If the ward doesn’t get a 40L+ super famous spouse, their family is disheartened. Families are no happier with “Marriage Sacrifice”. They are now aspiring to the transformed form of marriage sacrifice named “Destination Wedding”!

Recently somebody asked me, what was your first vehicle? Atlas 1963 Model Bicycle, inherited from my father after 30 years of his usage! The next question was about my first motor vehicle. I told them, “Second-hand TVS moped”. I heard, “Roaring laughter”. As a follow-up, the next question was, what was your first 4-wheeler? I said, Maruti 800, Non-AC, Non-Metallic Paint, Maroon Color (lower price for that color), used it for 15 long years and dumped it when it caught fire. I witnessed Belly laugh, but I am not ashamed. In all three cases, after 48 years of my life existence, I feel proud of my buying decisions. I said it was not about miserliness, but rather a sense of responsibility.

AI is going to alter the course of life itself. It is not just language models (chatGPT, Bard, etc) but AI for creative tools, AI for medicine, AI for project management, etc. are going to make a profound influence on our daily decisions. You use them for your productivity but never allow them to pivot your life!  

Responsible AI is the key! "AI is a double-edged sword, it has the potential to make our lives easier, but we need to make sure that it’s used for good and not for evil." - Elon Musk

Ravi Saripalle