Author: Satyen K Bordoloi

Much tomfoolery and chicanery is going on in reporting what Google’s new quantum chip, Willow, can do. Satyen K. Bordoloi attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff. Google’s recent announcement of their Willow quantum computing chip has, to put it mildly, made the world go bonkers. And why wouldn’t it? Google claims in its blog/press release/announcement that “Willow performed a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion (that is, 10²⁵) years — a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe.” Mind blown, right? But what does this…

Google has unintentionally been sawing off the branch it sits on, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi, as he profiles the future of search and advertising in the age of AI. Since its advent, the Internet has been a slave to our patience. In 1999, when I first started using the internet search, I heard of people finding their soulmates while waiting for pages to load. Google revolutionized this experience with its lightning-fast searches, making impatience the new norm and dominating both the search and ad markets. Today, though, Google’s search and advertising businesses are on shaky ground, facing challenges from a…

The U.S. government is considering a “Manhattan Project-style initiative” for artificial intelligence development without realising that, unlike nuclear power, AI doesn’t have an end-point writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. When J. Robert Oppenheimer recruited physicists for the Manhattan Project, he gave them a well-defined goal: to build an atomic bomb using uranium and plutonium. The project concluded with the development, testing, and deployment of ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man,’ which left profound and lasting impacts on the world’s psyche. Now, the U.S. is proposing a similar initiative for AI, driven by concerns about Chinese technological advancements. The Proposal: In November, the…

AI agents have been gaining significant attention recently. As awareness about these systems grows, Satyen K. Bordoloi provides an easy-to-understand explanation for the uninitiated. In the ever-evolving world of AI, agents are currently in the spotlight. Microsoft’s Copilot Studio, Salesforce’s AgentForce, and Oracle’s AI agents are just a few examples pushing the boundaries of automation by enabling companies to deliver personalised experiences and streamline operations. Once considered futuristic, these agents are rapidly integrating into our lives. As I mentioned in a previous article, fictional agents like Jarvis in Iron Man or Agent Smith in the Matrix series are becoming a…

Once taken for granted, SD card slots in our mobile devices are disappearing in newer models. Satyen K. Bordoloi channels his inner Agatha Christie to dive into this curious mystery… I, Agatha Christie, have spent a lifetime unravelling the most baffling mysteries, from the eerie isolation of And Then There Were None to the complex web in Murder on the Orient Express, and the shocking twist of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. However, one enigma confounds me the most – one that delves into the heart of technological innovation, consumer behaviour, and corporate strategy. The case of the vanishing microSD…

The integration of memory capabilities into generative AI represents low-hanging fruit that companies have taken surprisingly long to implement, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi, as he explores its significant impact on advertising and personal assistants. You plan to surprise your best friend with a birthday party. So, you tell Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, to suggest ideas. Then, life gets busy, and you forget about it. While you’re focused on another task a week later, Gemini chimes in, “Hey, today’s a good day to order the cake and send out the invitations.” You feel a wave of relief at the timely reminder.…

Even the greatest minds make mistakes, offering us valuable insights and lessons. Satyen K. Bordoloi explores the errors of geniuses and their modern parallels in AI. Geoffrey Hinton – 2024’s Nobel Prize winner in Physics – has the unique distinction of being in opposing camps simultaneously. He’s universally recognized as the godfather of AI, yet he is also one of the biggest AI doomsayers. He has some mild and accurate warnings about AI and others that are dire, scary, and a tad shady, like how AI superintelligence, driven by self-preservation, could wipe out humanity. This creates a kind of dichotomy.…

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’…