Author: Satyen K Bordoloi

Although we endlessly hype AGIs as one unique system, Satyen K. Bordoloi argues that it might be achieved by connecting different AMIs—advanced Machine Intelligences—using APIs. “We shouldn’t be threatened by machines that are smarter than us. We need systems that resemble human intelligence or advanced machine intelligence (AMI). Human intelligence is not general at all,” Yann LeCun, Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, said when he was in India recently. Since the arrival of ChatGPT, the buzz in the AI community has been about AGI—Artificial General Intelligence—AI systems that will magically do everything we want. LeCun asking for a change in terminology…

While doomsdayism about AI exaggerates potential future harms of AI, unregulated tech in the present is already causing horrifying damage finds Satyen K. Bordoloi In the 2013 sci-fi film Her, when Theodore – played by Joaquin Phoenix – learns that his AI girlfriend Samantha has been having ‘affairs’ with 641 other men, he is devastated. His reaction is the same as one would if one discovers their human partner or spouse having an affair. This sci-fi scenario is coming true more and more as AI characters and chatbots proliferate. An American teen who fell victim to it, has directed spotlight…

As the adoption of generative AI grows, its misuse to generate nudes of women and children is also rising, finds Satyen K. Bordoloi as he narrates the inspiring story of a teen who fought back India has always been an enthusiastic adopter of technology. However, widespread integration into its vast population has been gradual. This trend is mirrored in the adoption of generative AI, where numbers are high, and percentages low. As AI use becomes more widespread, the potential for misuse also increases. A pressing concern is its use to generate explicit images. Numerous websites now offer tools to ‘nudify’…

When Meta’s Chief AI scientist Yann LeCun was in India in October, he highlighted some interesting ideas about training AI and ML. Satyen K. Bordoloi delves into those and outlines how they could be game changers. Yann LeCun, VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – was in India in the last week of October, giving lectures and holding interactions. He proposed some unique ideas. On October 22, delivering the “Prof. Subra Suresh Institute Lecture Series” at IIT Madras, Chennai, he said: “If you are interested in human-level AI, don’t work on LLMs.…

As AI evolves, its true potential will be realised when it can autonomously handle most of our digital tasks. Satyen K. Bordoloi explores recent AI advancements to spotlight the emergence of personal AI assistants. In the Marvel film series, Iron Man’s digital assistant, Jarvis, has complete control of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit and digital life, completing tasks with voice commands. Though fictional, it is a benchmark for AI capabilities, with Google naming its latest AI tech designed to control web browsers and perform tasks like research and shopping, Project Jarvis. The advancements in AI have been astounding, but we…

Generative AI use in India has risen exponentially, finds Satyen K. Bordoloi as he delves into the reasons for this surge and the opportunities it presents for India. A rapper in Kartarpur, a wannabe Sidhu Moose Wala, uses her laptop and phone to produce a hip-hop track but lacks the funds for a sleek video. Someone tells her about TTV – text-to-video, the ability of AI systems to generate videos from text prompts. She subscribes to one for a month, shoots some good photos with her phone, animates them with TTV, and edits them with a friend into her first…

Silicon Valley is turning to nuclear power in a desperate bid to find the energy to power its electricity-guzzling AI technology. Satyen K. Bordoloi outlines the dangers of and the reasons for this trend When you ask about the biggest hurdles blocking faster development and deployment of artificial intelligence, most people think of research stagnation, hallucinations, consumer fatigue, or even excessive AI doomsdayism. Some, perhaps rightly so, talk of another AI winter around the corner. Rarely does anyone point to the actual problem: energy deficit. To understand how big a problem this is, consider what Washington Post reporters Pranshu Verma…

Two Nobel Prizes this year, one for developers of AI and the other for researchers using it, have sparked unnecessary controversy writes Satyen K. Bordoloi The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects Nobel Prize winners, stunned the world by awarding two prizes with AI connections this year. The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to physicist John Hopfield, and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton for their work in developing Artificial Intelligence. The Chemistry Nobel went to Professor David Baker of the University of Washington, and Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, co-founders of the AI firm DeepMind. This has divided the world. The…

Much like Kodak, Xerox, and Nokia before, four big tech companies missed the biggest opportunity of this decade: AI. Now, they are struggling to catch up, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. Not many know that Kodak invented the digital camera, or that Xerox invented the GUI, Ethernet, mouse, and PC among many other things that are the backbone of our digital lives. But they became so big, that they got comfortable with what they had, and this myopia took them to the brink of extinction. Image Courtesy: lexica.art When we talk of AI, we already have four aspirants who almost made…

As we concretise plans to build a colony on the Moon, real-time communication with that space real estate still eludes us, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. He finds setting up data centres on the Moon is the first step toward becoming a spacefaring ‘civilization’. In sci-fi, communication between planets was instantaneous even before it was so on Earth. Now that voice and video messaging is fast on Earth, our belief in space communications has shot-up. The truth is that transmission through the vast expanse of space is the final frontier before we become a spacefaring civilization. Voyager 1, travelling away from…