Ravi Pandit (KPIT Founder) identifies three levels of risk that AI poses to humanity, ranging from individual cognitive decline to broader societal and philosophical challenges:
1. Dumbing Down the Population
The first level of risk is that AI may "dumb us down" by causing humans to offload essential cognitive tasks to machines. Pandit provides several examples of this:
- Memory Loss: People no longer remember telephone numbers because they have "delegated" that memory to computers.
- Loss of Basic Skills: Calculation abilities, such as knowing multiplication tables, are being lost as people rely on technology.
- Mechanised Thinking: As computers begin to understand broad instructions (talking to them "like an adult"), the fundamental skill of coding—which requires precise logic—may diminish among humans.
2. Disruption of Society
The second level involves the disruption of social and economic structures. Key concerns include:
- Income Disparity: AI could lead to high income inequality, as seen in the stock market where a few AI-driven companies dominate while others struggle.
- Job Displacement: Conventional areas of work, such as basic coding, project management, and roles involving the management of large groups of people, are at risk of being replaced by AI and mechanisation.
- Impact on Small Enterprises: There is a risk of displacement for people "down the subsidiary index," including MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises).
3. Impingement on Human Purpose
The third and most profound level of risk is what Pandit describes as the "impingement of human needs" or a philosophical displacement.
- Loss of Role: He poses the existential question: "if they [AI] do everything where are we?".
- The Future of Work: If AI and robotics perform most tasks, humans may have to drastically redefine their lives, perhaps working significantly fewer hours and finding new ways to spend their time, such as in nature, entertainment, or healthcare.
Pandit suggests that to mitigate these risks, societies must focus on creating "clean industry jobs" in areas like green energy, education, and urban management to ensure a "demographic dividend" rather than a "demographic disaster".
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