To ChatGPT, or Not to ChatGPT

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The other day, my YouTube listing featured a video on novel-writing using ChatGPT. I did not bother to watch it. I like to keep certain aspects of my naivety intact. Now, Khan Academy plans to deploy ChatGPT-powered tutors to replace human tutors. That was another trigger to bemoan the oncoming demise of the teaching profession on social media.

The profession enjoyed an imagined immunity from digitization. It was touted as the most in-person thing, after mothering and nursing, that children cannot do without. Although COVID lockdown came very close to dismantling that notion, the ineffectiveness of online instruction was evident to all participants including parents. But, online learning is not an instance of AI. AI was involved only so far as to cut out a father walking into the camera with only a towel hanging by the waist. Before children realized the usefulness of background blur feature, they had pried into the homes of their classmates sometimes allowing that voyeuristic pleasure to their parents too. They (I mean children) had seen mothers suckling their babies, elders scratching away to glory, and the mess of a house that even the wealthy cannot avoid until domestic help arrives. AI saved the day for most of us. Children could take a poop while attending the class.

Generationally, I consider myself in the Moses’ camp to have found a safe passage into Sinai. While our children are the Egyptian chasers fleeing into the sea of artificial intelligence as it returns to its fullness. With our level of skills, our kids as adults might barely manage a subsistence level existence in the digital slums of the future, provided the AI justice system in its infinite algorithmic wisdom allows for such unproductive ghettos.

I tried painting a picture of AI-dominated future to my daughter: How it is going to replace humans in various professions including that of a teacher, pretend playing whom is her favourite pastime. I expressed my doubts about her generation finding any meaningful employment 15 years hence. A few high-end jobs will be taken by those who before turning thirteen will have hacked into intelligence networks of enemy countries for their government. The rest get to rest. She asked me, “Then why should I study?” Although her school fees is really high, I explained to her the idea of education is to gain an understanding of the world around us. “Don’t you feel empowered by the knowledge that rains are a part of three-phase water cycle; that tides are caused by moon's gravity? Being knowledgeable makes you feel good about yourself, isn’t it? We do not like to live clueless lives. Nor can we live in perpetual curiosity.” I did my best to dissuade her from questioning her academic engagement.

I told her she could pursue something creative. By then, she had got the drift of AI possibilities. Taking her cues from camera filters and voice modulating apps, she questioned, “Why can’t AI be creative?” I carelessly threw in the piece about AI-generated novels and children’s books. I actually wanted to say, “Why can’t something be done for fun?” but avoided such self-righteous fretting as she did not have role models around her to imbibe that attitude. I wanted to steer the discussion to learning as a process versus learning as a product; creativity that is intentional versus creativity that arises out of the input fed into a machine. Again, I did not want to come across as a father losing it.

'Learning is fun' is a realization that every child must come to herself. The process of learning is said to be almost similar for the human mind and machine learning systems. The difference is the human mind can enjoy the experience of learning. It is indeed miraculous how our minds move from utter ignorance to knowledge to finding a perspective on things. And the process goes on. 

AI or no AI, kids ought to have their playtime, even if it comes at the cost of learning new technologies during that while, unless we want to raise twisted minds and sore tempers. If sanity prevails, we will innovate our way out of AI excesses. A human teacher is not going away in another 25 years unless the goals of education change. 

ChatGPT may type out a custom thriller in a matter of minutes. Specify the page count, style, pace, historical setting, and convolutedness factor and by the time you are back with your coffee mug, the plot will have thickened. But it would come from an unfeeling entity working with a problem-solving approach. With proliferation of AI-generated literature, human-authored classics will become precious by the day. 

In one of those bleak pictures of the future offered by AI, humanness could become just another commodity. But it's sure going to be the commodity dearest. Human flaws will be the dimples on the cheeks. Human conversation will be our psychiatry. Human touch will be a celebrity.  

Comments

Priya said…
Lovely blog indeed, Amit. The one thing that we forget through all the innovations and ages we pass through is, humanity will always be the number one need for people to survive and flourish. And no machine can ever replace a human warmth and endearing care.
15 September 2023 at 20:57
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