Watch out!  ChatGPT comes sneaking

“I think; therefore I am.” This profound Descartes’ quote is fast losing its gravitas as AI-inspired ChatGPT sneaks its way into our computer-savvy world. Not just essays, articles, speeches and text messages but the new technology can churn out even serious research articles that are indistinguishable from those produced by the thinking human mind. And, writers of all hues beware!:  existential crisis for you is at hand. With ChatGPT at beck and call there won’t be any need to rack one’s brains to stitch together a plot and then, burning mid-night oil, weave a tapestry of words and inject emotions, satire, pathos, suspense, melodrama, horror into a laborious writing endeavour. Thanks to ChatGPT, the PC will deliver a sizzling story or a novel in a matter of minutes. So each one of us could be her/his own Shakespeare, Keats, Manto, Premchand or Mahadevi Verma!

No wonder that ChatGPT has already made its way into the hallowed corridors of law courts. Did you read the recent news about how a lawyer had to apologize before the judge for his misdemeanour? He had produced ChatGPT-minted evidences and old judgements to buttress his arguments. ChatGPT had even assured him that it was all factual and true. But the old, heavy leather-bound law-records refuted his assertions as was subsequently established much to the grief of the lawyer, and eventual relief of the baffled jury and the opposing lawyer. But this is just a tip of the iceberg. Serious disruptions in human society and job losses are already becoming visible. The more ChatGPT intrudes into our machine-driven lives and takes hold of human behaviour, thought and actions, the more its monstrosities will unravel, which as yet defy full comprehension.

Having said that, ChatGPT is certainly good news for those gen-next Romeos and Juliets who, constipated by lack of lucid expression, can’t pour their hearts out in words. A soulful, bleeding-heart outpouring (soaked in Urdu shayari- like, we the old, did) to woo, win or proclaim affections for one’s heartthrob is now a button-touch away.

Machine and man have never been so close before. But what sounds like a blessing – and in several respects it indeed is – ChatGPT has the potential of degenerating into a Frankenstein monster, as sounded out by the godfathers (Geoffrey Hinton et al) of this technology. When feelings and emotions - hitherto an exclusive preserve of our sentient life - are usurped by machines, what kind of world it would lead us to challenges human imagination. But if the past is any guide one thing is certain. Given the perverse tendencies of man, like nuclear energy being diverted from public good to making WMDs, ChatGPT may end up as a destructive tool too. Citing Rousseau’s famous lines “Man is born free but…” and rephrasing it in the present context, a newspaper article said it all: “Modern human beings think themselves the masters of machines and still remain a greater slave than they.” I will dab it with my own byte of fear: With our mental functions overwhelmed by machines our idle brains may become more potent Devil’s workshops working overtime to cause mischief, strife and chaos in human society; even extinction. For, the few present-day Gandhis, Martin Luther Kings and Mandelas amidst us are on the retreat, while Hitlers, Mussolinis, Goebbels, Rajas-cum-Rishis and their loyal vazirs-cum-chelas are on the ascendant, thriving and prospering!

Alerted, Europe has, wisely enough, already put regulatory controls on the unbridled use of AI-generated technology. China too has. Imperial India (the self-professed World- Leader), royally shrugging off such fears, hasn’t yet. Hope it soon does.

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