From Horoscope to Hallucination: How AI Is Quietly Reshaping Personal Decisions!

Dear Friends,

On March 7, 2023, I wrote an article on “The Changing Driving Forces of the Indian Marriage System!” (www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-driving-forces-indian-marriage-system-saripalle/). Today, on average, any successful matchmaking passes through 15 parameters such as family history, horoscope, star, caste, nature of the job, package, location, appearance, social habits, the boy’s/girl’s previous social background, influences, the financial position of both families, educational background of both families, and many more. I am only taking basic parameters; in some cases, they go up to 32.

15–20 years ago, the conditions were heavily weighted toward the boy’s side, but today they are heavily weighted toward the girl’s side. Thanks to social media, both pains and perspectives are shared openly and publicly. Earlier, due to ego, they were either within the house or inside the heart. They were not publicly shared. Today, Gen Z kids are openly sharing those views and highlighting the flaws in the system.

A few days back, there was an article in the Hindustan Times. A woman lost 1 crore rupees or £100,000 in London, moved to Australia due to family constraints, worked as a product manager, and was fired due to market conditions. She now works as a cleaner and housekeeping manager at Airbnb houses. I appreciate this woman’s confidence and dignity of labor. In fact, many great founders did the same. Jan Koum worked as a grocery store cleaner in California during his youth to support himself and his mother after immigrating to the United States from Ukraine.

A married man or woman can publicly write, but can a prospective (yet to get married) boy or girl who is on the verge of the process confidently write in the current circumstances? I doubt it. Adding to this complexity, AI has now been added to these 15–30 parameters. To date, parents have not resorted much to AI for background verification, but thanks to free GPT tools, they are now asking AI for help as well.

Yesterday, there was an article in Moneycontrol. The summary of the article is: “When a father Googled his daughter's potential match, Google AI confidently declared the CEO already married to a woman named Joya. The problem? She does not exist.” He wrote, “I almost lost a marriage prospect to an AI hallucination. Her father did what every Indian father does before the match—he Googled me.” (https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/google-ai-invented-a-wife-for-me-how-an-ai-hallucination-nearly-ruined-this-ceo-s-marriage-prospect-13912953.html)

This is the result of hallucination. What if this hallucination goes the other way, stating something positive about the prospect? That is also not correct. Where do LLMs get most of their data? Reddit. About 40.1% of references are now from Reddit. This has outpaced Wikipedia (26.3%) and YouTube (23.5%), among others. LLM output is shaped by fast-moving discussions, real user reviews, and the latest opinions. Trust is increasingly crowdsourced.

In this context, if a boy's or a girl's data is widely discussed on social media, their profile can be trained, and LLMs may provide more accurate information about that person. If the data is skewed, the answers will also be skewed.

So far, AI's impact has largely been on jobs. Now, slowly, it is entering personal lives as well. We need to do something for the age group of 1–8. According to the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, the first 8 years can lay the foundation for future learning, health, and life success.

We need to initiate a special project for this age group. Next time, I will write about this project.

Ravi Saripalle

Investor-Founder vs Mother-In-Law (MIL)-Daughter-In-Law (DIL): Are They Similar?

Dear Friends,

Recently, I was invited by Tally Software to speak at the Startup Conclave as a panel speaker. Interestingly, the topic is “Term Sheet to Trouble: Investor-Founder Relationships That Go Wrong”. I was doing a little research in this area and thinking about which social relationship resembles this issue.

I felt that it was the relationship between the mother-in-law (MIL) and daughter-in-law (DIL). If we go into deep social science, the most common issues in this relationship are ideological indifference, economic indifference, control indifference, or psychological indifference. We see this in many serials, movies, and common households.

A few examples could be (I am only quoting a few representative examples; sometimes they are reversed, or they may not exist as well. These are personal views only):

1. Ideological Indifference (Difference in beliefs/values) – MIL believes in traditional roles (family-first, joint decisions); DIL believes in individual autonomy (career-first, personal choice).

2. Economic Indifference (Money & resource decisions) – MIL prefers saving, frugality, and control over expenses; DIL prefers spending on lifestyle, experiences, or independence.

3. Control Indifference (Decision-making power) – MIL feels she has authority in household decisions; DIL wants equal say or independence.

4. Psychological Indifference (Emotional expectations) – MIL expects respect, acknowledgment, and inclusion; DIL expects space, understanding, and trust.

In a similar vein, the investor–founder relationship is subtle but critical. A few examples could be as follows:

1. Vision Alignment – Founder wants to build a long-term, sustainable company; investor wants quick scale and an exit.

2. Financial Alignment (Burn vs Runway) – Founder spends aggressively for growth; investor pushes for cost control and profitability.

3. Control & Governance Alignment – Investor has board seats and veto rights; founder expects operational freedom.

4. Expectation & Communication Alignment – Founder shares selective updates; investor expects full transparency and regular reporting.

We have seen many examples across the globe. Let's do a small quiz.

In the case of OpenAI, Elon Musk was an early co-founder and supporter when it was initially created as a non-profit focused on safe AI for humanity. OpenAI evolved into a capped-profit / commercial model. Musk exited OpenAI (2018) and later became a public critic of its direction. It is an example of Vision misalignment.

In the Byju's vs lenders/investors case, there is a tension between aggressive expansion and acquisitions, and cash flow and debt repayment pressures. Outcome: legal disputes with lenders, restructuring pressure, and valuation concerns. This comes under Financial misalignment.

Steve Jobs had a strong product vision and wanted to control the whole process, while the board pushed for professional management, structure, and stability. What was the outcome? Jobs was forced out of Apple Inc. in 1985. This is a classic case of Control & Governance Misalignment.

Let's evaluate the Indian case: Housing.com founder vs investors—communication style, governance expectations, and leadership differences. What was the outcome? Founder exited despite strong early growth (ET, 2015). This comes under Expectation & Communication misalignment.

Having said that, the world cannot exist without the MIL-DIL relationship. It is most sacred. At the end of the day, they make the family survive. The same applies to Founder and Investor. They make the business survive. These conflicts are given, but conflict resolutions are scientific and well-designed. That is the art of life and the art of business.

Do you see any other alignment issues beyond these four, either between MIL & DIL or between Founder & Investor?

Ravi Saripalle