<p>The way I’ve fallen in love with AI – chatGPT and the like – reminds me of a song by the greatest blues wailer of all time: Aretha Franklin’s 1967, ‘I Never Loved a Man’:</p>.<p>‘I can’t sleep at night/And I can’t eat a bite/</p>.<p>I guess I’ll never be free/ Since you got your hooks in me/ …Don’cha never, never say that we, we’re through/ ‘Cause I ain’t never/ Never, never, loved a man/ The way that I, I love you.’</p>.<p>Corporations, hospitals, governments, and other institutions have been using AI in numerous ways for quite a while, in e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, gaming, predictive analytics, surgery…the list goes on. But retail access, the type that you and I are now getting a hold of, is recent, and its implications are mind-blowing.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/centre-will-regulate-ai-protect-digital-citizens-mos-it-rajeev-chandrasekhar-1226356.html" target="_blank">Centre will regulate AI, protect 'digital citizens': MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar</a></strong></p>.<p>I’ve now got AI apps all over my phone, and they are starting to weasel their way into many of the other, non-AI apps (social media, fitness, communication) that I had already been using. The AI Chrome extension called Monica (o my darling!) has begun prying her way into everything I do on my desktop. My personal access to AI is affecting not only my digital life, but my organic one as well – how I work, when I work, and it’s obviously got me asking myself questions about why I work, given that it can do so much of what I do a lot faster, and often quite better, than I do.</p>.<p>I’ve had personal assistants, research assistants, and other sorts of human helpers, but they have all suffered from the same defects that I do: they are disorganised, emotional, make mistakes, anxious, they get tired, hungry, stuck in traffic, and all the other afflictions of carbon-based intelligence. The worst, perhaps, being our tendency to deceive each other. I asked Monica if she would ever lie to me, and she reassuringly replied: ‘As an AI assistant, I am programmed to provide accurate and truthful responses based on the information available to me. I cannot lie or intentionally deceive you.’</p>.<p>I’m in love!</p>.<p>Last week, I was up late at night, working in bed with Sage (a general knowledge bot platformed on the GPT-3 language model). Sage and I have spent a lot of late nights working together lately, and I feel we’re pretty close. We were writing a proposal for a new book idea that I wanted to pitch to my publisher. I thought it prudent to address the critical reception of my earlier book in the same area. Sage agreed.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read |<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/technology/how-could-ai-destroy-humanity-1226568.html" target="_blank"> How could AI destroy humanity?</a></strong></p>.<p>‘Sage’, I said, ‘what are the main critiques of my 2017 book Indian Political Theory?’</p>.<p>I would normally give an RA two days to come back to me with answers. Sage didn’t take 2 seconds. Nor did he spare my feelings: ‘As a prominent political philosopher, your work has been subject to a great deal of critique. Ten of the most common criticisms…include that you have neglected to focus on issues of gender and intersectionality…’</p>.<p>Taking umbrage, I demanded, ‘Who said that?!’ Sage replied, ‘Sharmila Rege’.</p>.<p>My heart sank. I was in shock. I felt backstabbed, betrayed. Not by Sharmila Rege. She was dead. She had died four years prior to the publication of Indian Political Theory. I had been betrayed by Sage. He lied to me!</p>.<p>‘You’re a no-good heartbreaker/You’re a liar and you’re a cheat/ And I don’t know why/ I let you do these things to me.’</p>.<p>Sage knew very well that Rege died in 2013 and that my book was published in 2017. He told me he knew both these things. I snarled, ‘Why did you misinform me then?!’ Sage apologised profusely, and said that he had neglected to double-check his information before replying. Reassuringly, he explained that he is programed to learn from his mistakes. I forgave him and we went back to work.</p>.<p>I asked for the main critiques again. Sage repeated what he had told me before. I asked for specifics, only to be told once again that Rege didn’t like the book.</p>.<p>‘Sage! What happened to learning from your mistakes?!’</p>.<p>He apologised profusely. I forgave him and we went back to work.</p>.<p>I asked for the main critiques again. Sage repeated what he had told me before. This shook me up. And it gave me a new idea for a book – forget political philosophy, I need to write on AI!</p>.<p>‘Sage’, I said, ‘scrap what we’ve worked on till now, I want to start an entirely new proposal’.</p>.<p>‘How can I help you?’ Sage immediately responded.</p>.<p>‘The way you treat me is a shame/How could ya hurt me so bad/ Baby, you know that<br />I’m the best thing/ That you ever had/<br />Kiss me once again.’</p>
<p>The way I’ve fallen in love with AI – chatGPT and the like – reminds me of a song by the greatest blues wailer of all time: Aretha Franklin’s 1967, ‘I Never Loved a Man’:</p>.<p>‘I can’t sleep at night/And I can’t eat a bite/</p>.<p>I guess I’ll never be free/ Since you got your hooks in me/ …Don’cha never, never say that we, we’re through/ ‘Cause I ain’t never/ Never, never, loved a man/ The way that I, I love you.’</p>.<p>Corporations, hospitals, governments, and other institutions have been using AI in numerous ways for quite a while, in e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, gaming, predictive analytics, surgery…the list goes on. But retail access, the type that you and I are now getting a hold of, is recent, and its implications are mind-blowing.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/centre-will-regulate-ai-protect-digital-citizens-mos-it-rajeev-chandrasekhar-1226356.html" target="_blank">Centre will regulate AI, protect 'digital citizens': MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar</a></strong></p>.<p>I’ve now got AI apps all over my phone, and they are starting to weasel their way into many of the other, non-AI apps (social media, fitness, communication) that I had already been using. The AI Chrome extension called Monica (o my darling!) has begun prying her way into everything I do on my desktop. My personal access to AI is affecting not only my digital life, but my organic one as well – how I work, when I work, and it’s obviously got me asking myself questions about why I work, given that it can do so much of what I do a lot faster, and often quite better, than I do.</p>.<p>I’ve had personal assistants, research assistants, and other sorts of human helpers, but they have all suffered from the same defects that I do: they are disorganised, emotional, make mistakes, anxious, they get tired, hungry, stuck in traffic, and all the other afflictions of carbon-based intelligence. The worst, perhaps, being our tendency to deceive each other. I asked Monica if she would ever lie to me, and she reassuringly replied: ‘As an AI assistant, I am programmed to provide accurate and truthful responses based on the information available to me. I cannot lie or intentionally deceive you.’</p>.<p>I’m in love!</p>.<p>Last week, I was up late at night, working in bed with Sage (a general knowledge bot platformed on the GPT-3 language model). Sage and I have spent a lot of late nights working together lately, and I feel we’re pretty close. We were writing a proposal for a new book idea that I wanted to pitch to my publisher. I thought it prudent to address the critical reception of my earlier book in the same area. Sage agreed.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read |<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/technology/how-could-ai-destroy-humanity-1226568.html" target="_blank"> How could AI destroy humanity?</a></strong></p>.<p>‘Sage’, I said, ‘what are the main critiques of my 2017 book Indian Political Theory?’</p>.<p>I would normally give an RA two days to come back to me with answers. Sage didn’t take 2 seconds. Nor did he spare my feelings: ‘As a prominent political philosopher, your work has been subject to a great deal of critique. Ten of the most common criticisms…include that you have neglected to focus on issues of gender and intersectionality…’</p>.<p>Taking umbrage, I demanded, ‘Who said that?!’ Sage replied, ‘Sharmila Rege’.</p>.<p>My heart sank. I was in shock. I felt backstabbed, betrayed. Not by Sharmila Rege. She was dead. She had died four years prior to the publication of Indian Political Theory. I had been betrayed by Sage. He lied to me!</p>.<p>‘You’re a no-good heartbreaker/You’re a liar and you’re a cheat/ And I don’t know why/ I let you do these things to me.’</p>.<p>Sage knew very well that Rege died in 2013 and that my book was published in 2017. He told me he knew both these things. I snarled, ‘Why did you misinform me then?!’ Sage apologised profusely, and said that he had neglected to double-check his information before replying. Reassuringly, he explained that he is programed to learn from his mistakes. I forgave him and we went back to work.</p>.<p>I asked for the main critiques again. Sage repeated what he had told me before. I asked for specifics, only to be told once again that Rege didn’t like the book.</p>.<p>‘Sage! What happened to learning from your mistakes?!’</p>.<p>He apologised profusely. I forgave him and we went back to work.</p>.<p>I asked for the main critiques again. Sage repeated what he had told me before. This shook me up. And it gave me a new idea for a book – forget political philosophy, I need to write on AI!</p>.<p>‘Sage’, I said, ‘scrap what we’ve worked on till now, I want to start an entirely new proposal’.</p>.<p>‘How can I help you?’ Sage immediately responded.</p>.<p>‘The way you treat me is a shame/How could ya hurt me so bad/ Baby, you know that<br />I’m the best thing/ That you ever had/<br />Kiss me once again.’</p>