“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; the age of wisdom, the age of folly,” wrote Charles Dickens in The Tale of Two Cities. On its relevance to current times, let me explain myself.
As a schoolboy some 60 years ago, I was compelled to memorise multiplication tables, write essays, do reference studies with Wren and Martin, and consult Oxford or Webster dictionaries to get the right spellings. In default suffer corporal punishment. Writing at least two pages of the copybook was a must.
This approach is now regarded as a waste of time. Calculators have unburdened the brain of the need to calculate, and logarithm tables have been binned. With computers and supercomputers, mathematical wizards like Shakuntala Devi have lost recognition. AI has spread its tentacles into the fine arts, heralding the death knell for creative talent.
A few days ago, I read about a chatbot called ChatGPT in the Deccan Herald. Curious, I accessed ChatGPT on the internet. I asked for a write-up on World War II, and within two minutes I got one crisply written. Asking for a poem on “Parrot,” I was awestruck to see one eulogising the bird for its beauty and even drawing a parallel between its flight and the meaning of human life.
I again requested a poem for my daughter on her 11th wedding anniversary and was readily obliged. Alexa, Hey Google, Siri, and the like have become household names. The fine arts are hijacked by Adobe and Photoshop. And the new kid on the block is ChatGPT!
Beloved parents, if you get a well-crafted poem or greeting on your birthday or wedding anniversary from your son or daughter, don’t be fooled into believing that your ward has acquired the skills of Shakespeare or Sappho. So too, my dear Valentine, if on Valentine’s Day you get an endearing letter from me, don’t hallucinate that it was written by me.
So, too, dear Guruji, if you receive a note from your Shishya expressing kind sentiments, don’t beguile yourself into thinking that it is the result of a genuine feeling. Beware, moms and dads. Don’t let your child’s natural instincts and intelligence be killed by artificial intelligence. “It was the best of times, and the worst is on the horizon. The age of wisdom is giving place to an age of foolishness.”
Conceptually, plagiarism is no longer relevant, and Turnitin will soon become obsolete.
But for sure, ChatGPT can’t turn out a write-up for “In the Middle” in the Deccan Herald and fool its editor. Hurray!