Witerati: Prose and Cons of AI slavery
Just when one was gaining freedom from endless threads of WA conversations, there comes old wine dressed in a new bottle
Till the previous Independence Day, I, in all smugness, supposed that I existed in a world free from any serious sort of subjugation.
This I-Day eve, one stands jolted out of the smugness and sense of security we oftentimes cocoon ourselves in.
The stirring out of that sense of smugness came courtesy a confession, from my former senior associate editor, that is now more a tongue-in-cheek, thought-provoking open secret, by virtue of going virtual on Twitterverse and every which “(ad)verse” that maps cyberia. So, it couldn’t get better or Metaverse than this.
Narrated in his inimitable and interesting anecdotal style, the musings reveal that so intrigued has he been by all the debates about the boon and bane of AI that he decided to put it to test.
So far so good.
Why his contemplations conjured curiosity for yours truly is but evident from this — at the receiving end of his AI testing had been none other than my new book, a suspense saga.
And how!
Of litmus(h) tests and literature
As part of his experimentations with the efficacy of the newest form of annexation that humankind is either leveraging, lusting after or labouring under, the esteemed colleague crafted this cheeky challenge for ChatGPT:
“Pen a book review for ‘Garnets Under My Gulmohar’”.
And ChatGPT went ballistic. The sort of ball-istic that one associates with an overzealous wielding of the pen. A ball-point pen.
ChatGPT churned out chapter-wise critiques of my book under review. Till now, one had heard of visceral or verbal diarrhoea. This was literal diarrhoea of cyberia.
So far, no good.
Mercifully, what saved yours truly existentially from the new ‘infiltrator’s’ indirect incursion was the fact that the review was no good. It was as terribly trashy as Trump’s tweets.
In the words of our esteemed editor-experimenter, the review was pure and plain “useless”.
ChatGPT flunked this exam.
The curious case of AI not making the grade in this lit-mus test.
ChatGPT’s challenge
Life goes on as the world grapples with the prose and cons of this new form of supposed slavery.
Just when one smugly supposed that one had mastered strategies to minimise cyber slavery, there popped up another infiltrator.
As all those Tweeple who are chat challenged to master multitasking through the maze of WhatsApp groups, will well know, there has been invented for the less savvy a saviour strategy. Disappearing threads, of conversations.
Aha, one, too, had safely sought refuge in such strategies, until that smugness stood pompously punctured by a peer.
“Hey, why haven’t you responded. I sent you an invite for Threads?”
Just when one was gaining freedom from endless threads of WA conversations, there comes old wine dressed in a new bottle. Threads.
Piffle!
Heaven save one from another form of e-slavery!
It being I-day eve, it’s but befitting to sign off on a sweet note.
Just the other day, there was this urge to dish up a dessert for a bunch of guests dropping in.
With memory failing as badly as Novak Djokovic’s volleys on Wimbledon Centre Court, I could not much recall mom’s signature recipe for home-made donuts.
It looked as if one would have to subject oneself to that other form of slavery, depending for every silly “n” sundry recipe on cyberia’s culinary “Alexa” — YouTube. Or, having to go nuts by turning to ChatGPT for donuts.
Nah, no fun in that. The delight of “daadi naani ki recipes” lies not in measured ingredients, but on dishing it out “andaaze se”.
The brain fog suddenly lifted. Voila, the trade secrets of Maa’s pre e-slavery donut recipe rushed back to mind, like a sidelined steam coach chugging, huffing and puffing, on to a rail platform parading plush Vande Bharats.
Thankfully thus, one was saved from subjugation by the new infiltrator — AI.
The curious case of age-old “Andaaza” Intelligence winning over Artificial Intelligence.
