How populists evade accountability

One of the most noticeable things about Donald Trump's first tempestuous months as President of the United States (US) is how his die-hard supporters have not lost an iota of their faith in him.

- MIHIR S SHARMA

ATANU BISWAS Sujoy Ghosh's 2017 Hindi short film Anukul, which is based on Satyajit Ray's tiny story from 1976, brilliantly captures Ray's timeless yet provocative futuristic vision of artificial intelligence (AI). "Anukul" means favourable or conducive, and the movie looks at the concept of building machines that are favourable and sensitive to human values and ethics. Is that true, though?

Bengal celebrates May 2 as filmmaker Ray's birthday. However, Ray was no less popular as a Bengali story writer. Some of his sci-fi stories—like Anukul—foreshadowed today's AI splendour and beyond. The apprehension that machines will be capable of thinking and acting independently very much persists in these stories.

In Ray's original story, Anukul, a humanoid housekeeping robot, is hired by Nikunja. The salesperson cautions Nikunja against hitting the android. Anukul and Nikunja develop a good relationship. Later, when Nikunja's financial situation deteriorates, he finds it difficult to cover Anukul's rent. He expresses his worry to the robot, and Anukul starts formulating a potential solution. Nibaran, Nikunja's uncle, visits him at home. For some reason, Nibaran slaps Anukul, and the robot kills him by electrocuting him with a high-voltage electric spark. Nikunja inherits 11.5 lakh (in the 1976 economy) from his uncle. Although it isn't mentioned in the story, Nikunja and Anukul briefly exchange glances in the film.

It's fascinating and eerie to see Anukul is transformed from a machine made to serve to a sentient entity with goals and aspirations. Significantly, often the precursors of AI in Ray's stories automatically transform into Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).