Without a subconscious, AI cannot beat us: Javed Akhtar

Writer Javed Akhtar shares his opinion on the ongoing SAG-AFTRA protests in Hollywood, the progression of cinema over the years and more

As the world continues to wring its hands about artificial intelligence taking over creative realms, lyricist-screenwriter Javed Akhtar advocates accepting the change and having faith in human capabilities.

Lyricist-writer Javed Akhtar spoke at the Bengaluru Poetry Festival this year

“I believe in the inevitability of technological progress, and perhaps the rest of humanity will have to adjust accordingly. We cannot put a stop to progress,” says the 78-year-old on using artificial intelligence (AI) in screenwriting. One of the agendas of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA protests in Hollywood is to seek protection of the livelihoods of creative professionals against AI.

“AI is a strange challenge for creative people, because now you have a computer that can create. But it can’t be as creative as a human being, because human beings don’t think in binary. There is a fuzzy area which computers are yet to develop,” adds the Gully Boy (2019) and Panga (2020) lyricist.

Akhtar, talking to us at Bengaluru Poetry Festival this year, feels that peak creativity is attainable only with the human touch. “There are areas where a writer feels that this is how it ought to be. Perhaps they themselves are not aware of why they chose to create a specific thing, until much later. I believe creativity, ultimately, does not exist on a conscious level. Like you have no man’s land between countries, that is how you have a no man’s land between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind, too,” explains Akhtar, adding that “computers are yet to develop a subconscious and till they are deprived of that, they can’t beat us”.

Apart from his work, one thing Akhtar is constantly in the news for his unapologetic statements on social media and for being trolled by a certain faction of users online. How does he react to it? “I’ve been given police protection three times in my life because of the threats I receive. But this is all part of the game — what can one do? It makes no difference to me and I have a thick skin. What I’m happy about is that I get abused by both sides of an issue that I talk about, and as long as both sides continue to abuse me, I’ll be fine. I’ll only be worried when one of them stops,” he signs off.