Not too long ago, a YouTube video of a Bollywood film song from the 1960’s landed on my WhatsApp. It was a star couple from present times doing the dance number Diwana Hua Badal. To be honest, I did start off enjoying the song, but in less than 30 seconds, I emerged to be the smart cookie for a change. I had detected the fakeness. For once at least, I deserve a pat on the back!
That video had gone viral. It had fooled many, and some went to the extent of commenting that the actors had extraordinary talent in their genes. They had done an outstanding job by replicating the exact dance moves of their predecessors.
No points for guessing, the clip was not real and was AI-generated. The faces of the original actors were being swapped with those of these new stars. This is but one example amidst the flood of wild experiments overwhelming us these days!
Artificial intelligence aka AI is the buzzword!
Going back by eight years, I remember being pretty interested in grasping, within my limited capacity, what artificial intelligence meant. The offspring was overtly enthusiastic to make his technically illiterate mom understand the basics in a layman’s language. A computer learns to function like a human brain, I was told. The autocorrect feature providing suggestions while typing and Netflix recommending content based on previous favorites are AI functions, he explained. Sadly, the interest I earlier had is slowly beginning to wane.
Before ranting about why I am kind of irked, I need to put a disclaimer. A little learning is a dangerous thing, and who am I to critique a technology that is making waves around the globe? I acknowledge that with regard to technology, efficiency, and automation, AI is bringing about a tremendous change to the world. It has forayed into almost all territories and brought about positive change, with research in the fields of medicine, climate change, and physics to name just a few. What is disheartening is how it is being misused and employed for some rather unsavory purposes.
Privacy? Perhaps a dream!
Privacy is nothing but a seven-letter word these days. AI algorithms and devices are collecting data on every aspect of our lives, be it the things we look at online, where exactly we have traveled, or every little thing we say and forget. This is not what we want: that every virtual thing that we do under the sun is being snooped upon, being exploited to train more and more AI models.
The flawlessly perfect script comes from the AI friend!
Every piece of information is at our fingertips. Furthermore, AI can present before you a ready-made document, encouraging the lazy to not utilize their brains. Referring to ChatGPT for research is fine. But there are many who have crossed boundaries by using it to present work that they have made zero contributions to as their own. It makes you wonder how someone who has struggled throughout life to write a single grammatically correct sentence turns out to be a poet overnight with the finest of lines! Well there is dirty work at play.
Mirror, mirror on the wall – Is AI plotting to dupe us all?
The world of social media literally thrives on AI apps. The face swindlers are active 24/7, playing around and making videos that go viral. Celebrities are targeted the most. Their faces are posted on random people, and they are shown doing the funniest and weirdest things on earth. Be it an actor, sports personality, singer, politician, or anyone in the news, no one is spared. Momentarily, these posts might tickle a funny bone in some, but with social media becoming inundated with such images all the time, it becomes utterly stale and annoying. There is voice deepfake technology out there too. Someone’s voice is taken to realistically overlay it onto a different person’s video or audio.
AI has been used to post the most bizarre content. You will come across the departed icons of yesterday, mingling and chatting with the celebrities of today. Then there are photos that show what some well-known personality would look like if he or she grew old, put on too much weight, or shed an insane load of pounds. These tricks only speak of a cheap sense of humor. Don’t they lean towards body shaming and promoting ageism and lookism?
Pausing to think
There have been many, many stories about how unfettered AI can go on to destroy everything we love. One such example is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blockbuster Terminator franchise. A newer case is the utilization of a rogue artificial intelligence as the main villain in the latest Mission Impossible film. The dashing Tom Cruise races to great lengths to prevent an AI agent from fomenting a nuclear disaster. Now obviously these are extremes, and we are unlikely to be exterminated by these algorithms any time soon. However, these stories still bring up a pertinent point.
Any technology that has the potential of creating wonders and transforming the world can wreck society when it falls into the wrong hands. We certainly do not want intelligence to be messed-up. So with AI revolutionizing our planet, where do we stand? Only time will tell.
rashmi writes 