Business Standard

Weekend Bites: Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen in the AI of the storm

In which we munch over the week's platter of news and views

AI-generated photo Anand Mahindra shared of himself playing Holi

AI-generated photo Anand Mahindra shared of himself playing Holi (Photo source: @Wild.trance)

Suveen Sinha New Delhi
The other day, Anand Mahindra posted a picture on Twitter and called it a hilarious take on ‘my’ Holi celebrations by an artificial intelligence artist. That’s why he put the my within single quotes.
 
Mahindra made a light-hearted remark about asking the AI artist to create ‘memories’ (quote marks again) of his trips to all locations on his bucket list. He ended the tweet with a sombre thought, putting it in parentheses: “(P.S. This has only reminded me of how AI can so easily create fake images & fake news for not-so-amusing purposes. It’s going to be a scary future).”
 
Right there, in a single tweet, Mahindra summarised the possibilities and pitfalls of using AI.
 
That brings us to the matter on hand. The story of this week is not one that dominated the front pages of Business Standard this week. It is one that has crept up on us and is turning into a full-blown explosion of facts, opinions, and all things in between. Technology titans, businessmen, and public intellectuals have been vying with the legendary trio of Tom, Dick, and Harry in trying to make themselves heard, and understood, on the subject.
 
Story of the week
 
In 2011, Marc Andreessen, who enjoys a near-mythical status as an investor in America’s Silicon Valley, wrote an article titled, “Why software is eating the world”. The article illustrated how software was writing the epitaph of traditional business models and value chains of the physical world. One of the examples he cited was of Amazon, “the world’s largest bookseller”, being a software company.
 
Much of what Andreessen foresaw turned out to be correct. In the ensuing years, software did take over the world.
 
This month, Andreessen wrote “Why AI will save the world”.
 
“The era of Artificial Intelligence is here, and boy are people freaking out,” he said. “Fortunately, I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it.”
 
He went ahead and explained this piece of good news over 6,870 words. It is a riveting read, if you are so inclined. However, when Andreessen posted it on Twitter on June 13, it ran into Elon Musk.
 
“Ask Me Anything about AI, or any of the topics in Why AI Will Save The World, as responses to this tweet and I will answer as many as I can,” Andreessen wrote.
 
The very first question under this tweet is Musk’s take-no-prisoners question: “How many years do we have before AI kills us all?”
 
In March, Musk was one of the more than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers who wrote an open letter urging AI labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning of “profound risks to society and humanity”.
 
Yuval Noah Harari, the historian and philosopher, says the new AI tools threaten the survival of the human civilisation. Gaining remarkable abilities to manipulate and generate language, with words, sounds, or images, AI has hacked the operating system of our civilisation, he argues, because language is what almost all human culture is made of.
 
Indeed, one of the early adoptions of AI has been in the area of language, writing, editing, and stuff. Social media is full of posts tom-tomming AI’s language-related abilities. Someone (let’s call him Tom) says ChatGPT, perhaps the most-discussed of AI tools, can write one thing in infinite ways, and lists 25 tones of voice that, used in prompts, can help generate these infinite responses.
 
Someone else (let’s call him Dick) says AI helps him find his “personal perspective” in writing. Harry says AI has replaced blogging forever. There are just too many of these – from image generating posts to those about “learning any language” -- to recount.
 
What is worth recounting here are the responses of businesses. Mercedes-Benz said it would introduce ChatGPT in its vehicles. Freshworks said its latest products were leveraging generative AI. Some companies are using AI in manufacturing and R&D. Some others… forget it, these are too many to recount as well.
 
On Wednesday, the European Parliament approved a draft Act designed to shape AI regulation around the world. If it gets the final approval, expected by the end of the year, it will be the cornerstone of regulating AI in all sectors except defence. As others have pointed out, this legislation focuses on the notion of risk and on the ways AI is used.
 
Regardless, venture capital firms, say reports, invested $1.7 billion in generative AI start-ups in the first quarter of this year. Call it adventure capital, perhaps?
 
In other news…
 
The Centre will weigh in on the move to ‘course-correct’ the PLI schemes in sectors that have seen little progress. The government will take a call by the end of 2023-24. Incentives have been given to PLI beneficiaries in eight of the 14 sectors — mobile manufacturing, IT hardware, pharmaceutical drugs, bulk drugs, medical device, telecom, food products, and drones.
 
The indirect tax administration has shortlisted 50,000 fresh cases for goods and services tax (GST) auditing in the current financial year as part of efforts to increase compliance and widen the tax base, said Vivek Johri, chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, in an interview with us. That is two-thirds more than in 2022-23.
 
The government is expected to reap an all-time high equity dividend of Rs 63,056 crore from 67 listed PSUs for FY23. That is 24.7 per cent more than in FY22.
 
India’s merchandise exports contracted for a fourth straight month in May as external demand remained muted, declining 10.3 per cent. Imports fell 6.5 per cent in their fifth consecutive month of decline. This led to the trade deficit widening to a five-month high.
 
The retail inflation rate in May cooled to a 25-month low on a high base and easing price pressures, giving the central bank the elbow room to extend its pause on policy rates. The Index of Industrial Production recovered in April on good performances by manufacturing and mining.
 
Tech that: Word from the world of technology and start-ups
 
A group of lenders told edtech startup Byju’s it was open to negotiations to resolve litigation and disputes. However, the lenders will not engage in one-on-one meetings, which Byju’s wanted. The start-up recently filed a lawsuit against US-based investment management firm Redwood to challenge the acceleration of a $1.2 billion loan. It also skipped an interest payment of $40 million on the loan.
 
Watch it: From The Morning Show
 
We tried a new format for one of the stories this week. Not entirely new, but fairly so. Bhaswar Kumar, who gets blamed if anything goes wrong with the TMS stories, conducted a panel discussion on the debate around the alleged CoWin data breach. See if you like it. If you don’t, feel free to blame the moderator.
 
What is Suveen obsessing over these days?
 
Please go back to the top and read the SOTW again. This time, maybe the obsession with the evolving AI story will shine through.
 
This is Suveen signing off. Please send comments, news, or views about anything — from signs that the human civilisation is about to end to insouciant newsletter writers — to suveen.sinha@bsmail.in.
 
(Suveen Sinha is Chief Content Editor at Business Standard)

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First Published: Jun 17 2023 | 7:45 AM IST

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