DREAM BIGGER AND ACT FASTER ON AI TO SECURE FUTURE

As tech again cleaves the world into leaders and laggards, India needs a purpose statement on artificial intelligence, not just a mission. It's a bus we can't afford to miss

- HARISH BIJOOR

THE buzz of artificial intelligence is in every ear. A loud and scary buzz even. If you are not into AI, you are going to be living in a different world altogether. A future dominated by those with AI.

A world divided into two. Those with it and those without. The future gets cleaved once again into the haves and the have-nots.

What began as a tentative talk in business newspapers a decade ago is a reality today. AI is bringing in efficiencies unimagined. A task that took, say, 4 hours to complete gets done in a few minutes. AI tools are helping everything we do today, from the homework of a Class 3 student to a high-level presentation on the economy made to the prime minister. AI is already in our midst on our smartphones and will shortly be in us as AI-embedded beings letting the machine do the thinking for us. The future is a buzz that has begun.

As this buzz gets louder, it's time for the world of technology to wake up and prepare for the needs of the divided world ahead. Countries such as India need to be more careful about this divide than many others.

Is it really a threat? Depends what you make of it. Depends also on whether you are on that side of technology where all this is happening, or on the other side of the fence where all this sounds like science fiction. The divide, deepening by the day is represented by technology at one end and religion at the other. These two strange buddies are dividing the world by the minute.

Let me talk technology this time around.