Getting with… the AI program

Over in India, their “AI Impact Summit”, themed “Sarvajana Hitaya”, (meaning “happiness for all”) reflecting a shared commitment to harnessing artificial intelligence for human-centric progress, kicked off on Monday by their PM Modi and will conclude this coming Friday. Attending are over 100 Government representatives – including more than 20 Heads of State and Government (including Brazil’s Lula and France’s Macron); 60 Ministers and vice Ministers (including VP Jagdeo) – along with more than 500 global AI leaders comprising CEOs, founders, academicians, researchers, CTOs, and representatives of philanthropic organisations!! It’s the first and largest AI Summit that brings all the stakeholders from within and without on one stage!!
Now whether we like it or not, AI’s here, and we better get with the programme – no pun intended!! We’ve been hearing all sorts of hysterical warnings about how AI’s gonna destroy our lives by pretty much turning us into zombies whose brains have been turned into mush so that it’ll run every aspect of our lives!! Now, your Eyewitness is old enough to remember this was the fear when calculators with logarithmic features were introduced – and we did away with all those books with which we were tortured by having us cram logarithm tables!! This warning was repeated when computers became comm, and again when the internet kicked off!!
Let’s face it, folks. All AI can do is to analyse literally millions and billions of documents – to which it has access – in seconds to answer our queries on anything under the sun, and then some!! That’s why they’re called “Large Learning Models” (LLMs), and they’re just an extension of what happens when we google a topic – and we analyse what’s thrown up. Just that this time the computer’s AI program, like ChatGPT, etc, will analyse it for us. It can then study patterns in large volumes of data, recognise trends and anticipate what may come next. Now, as in any kind of analysis, there are rules to be followed, and these – dubbed “algorithms” – have been programmed into the app.
All we gotta remember is that we must still use our minds to check whatever answers the AI app gives us – as they warn us constantly that they may err!! As such, we’ll now be able to improve our assessments at all levels of society – from what taste we can expect from that new exotic item on the restaurant’s menu to predicting the weather!! Governments will be able to analyse challenges in supply chains and make adjustments so we’re not blindsided!!
We should just act like we have persons with PhDs in whatever subject at our beck and call to answer our questions. Ain’t it great??

…passings
Yesterday morning two passings crossed your Eyewitness’ feed – that of the actor Robert Duvall and the American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. The first exemplified the reach of American soft power when the Godfather movies transfixed the globe – with him playing the Corleone Mafia family’s consigliere. Your Eyewitness remembers this line, “A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns”!!
Then there was the passing of Jesse Jackson, who was a protégé of Martin Luther King and given a leadership position since he was twenty-five. He never achieved elected office but was the person who popularised that label for “Black Americans” to run for the Democratic candidacy for the presidency. This he did in 1984 and most credibly in 1988!!
Your Eyewitness will never forget his heart-wrenching address when he spoke for all African Americans by riffing off the phrase “I am somebody!!”
“I may be poor, but I am somebody; I may be Black, but I am somebody….”

…insults
Magistrate Judy showed she’s a no-nonsense member of the Bench when she issued an arrest warrant for Sanction Man – after he repeatedly disrespected the courts by showing up late for his extradition hearings!!
Like ‘e think dis a wan joke??