The time when schools, colleges, and offices were shut down, after spending days at home, why students were desperate to go back to schools and colleges and why were people so eager to go back to offices?

Today when we witness advanced AI systems hovering around us, do people fear only losing jobs?

Here is something to ponder on.

When a person does any work – cooking, dancing, painting, playing, driving, watching sports or movies or even any office related work, the person does it for going through the experience of that activity. There are different emotions and feelings associated with that activity. The person enjoys the process of that activity and may not necessarily be looking for outcomes only.

A person works in office not to just earn money, but also to interact with colleagues and customers. The person feels happy to be part of a group or to get involved in any constructive activity. Not only this, but some people may also want to become part of office politics too. So essentially all emotions are at play. When people fear of AI snatching their jobs, it is not fear of just losing jobs, but the fear of being alone without space to experience all such above mentioned aspects of life.

Another day, a friend of mine suggested installing automated chapati/daal/rice makers so that cooking can be automated. He vouched for better hygiene, efficiency and ease. But he missed a very important aspect – cooking for many is not just about it. The emotions and enjoyment in the process of cooking invloves many aspects including – the anticipation of getting cuddled/loved/respect after all members have eaten, trying new dishes to make someone happy and above all – as it is said in Bharat – यह मैंने अपने हाथों से बनाया है !

Taking another example of people in Bharat who love cricket because of Kapil Dev and Sachin. Now, imagine a highly efficient and effective AI based robot that can play cricket and hit boundaries and sixes like Kapil and Sachin. Would people be mesmerized with that machine like they do with Kapil and Sachin? Most probably not. Why? The reason is in the strength of the robots – high efficiency and high effectiveness. People develop emotional bond also through failures and silly mistakes which people make. When Sachin plays an awful shot in finals and goes out for duck the 1 billion coaches sitting comfortably in their drawing rooms will get up and will tell him –
अरे! यह क्या किया, ऐसे pull करना था, क्या यार सचिन ! When people fear of AI, it’s this experience of disappointment that they fear will be missed. Efficiency and Effectiveness is not desirable always.

Similar is case with paintings, dancing, music and so on…

So, do I want to convey that, we should not go ahead with AI? No, in fact I am nobody to approve or disapprove.

So, what is the point?

First, this article is to help overcome the fears of AI taking over human beings. Understand what AI is, understand its limitations, understand limitations of people working on it and then adapt accordingly. At the end, we can adapt at a far better pace than machines could learn. If machines are trained on a huge data set, its ok. We can learn to utilize it to perform our duties and responsibilities in the best possible manner.

Second, it highlights the importance of being natural. In the mad rush for efficiency and effectiveness, always doing our best is good. But we can slightly lower down our expectations from others and accept that failures, disappointments, not so perfect human behaviour is part of our lives.

If machines are trained on Big data, remember that we are trained on Bhagwan’s data/love/emotions/bhakti…

It is an infinite data set. The limitless data or the – ​आत्म-ज्ञान. Bhagwad Gita, Ramayan, Puran and all such scriptures tell us that we are अंश of भगवान् and thus have the infinite potential. So, one chaupai would be apt –

​राम नाम को एक अंक बाकी सब साधन है सून | अंक गए कछु हाथ नहीं, अंक रहे दस गुन ||

(Name of Bhagwan Ram is like numeric 1 and all other things in the world are like numeric zero. If 1 is absent, everything is zero, while with 1 it becomes tenfold.)

PS: I have not used any AI based algorithm to improve the quality of above article. However, did ask it to improve the title. I have the input If machine is trained on big data, we are trained on Bhagwan’s Data… it generated the title “Divine Coding: Embracing Our Bhagwan-Given Data in the Era of AI”. So, I have kept a copy of article title by gpt 4 and also got it improved by gpt 4. In case you wish to read it, please email me on ankurjoshi87@gmail.com or enter your email in the comments and I will send it to you.

Also, please do share your feedback, views on this article.

Acknowledgements: The readings of books by Gita Press Gorakhpur, many authors and discussions with my gurujan, teachers, seniors, colleagues, friends, family and students have helped me in writing this article.

Some readings (in alphabetical order of author’s surname) to develop a perspective are:

  • Atre, S. (2016). Observing Nonverbal Behavior: An exhaustive guide to the essential skill of ‘Social Intelligence’. Educreation Publishing.
  • Atre, S. (2016). Understanding Emotions Logically: A Layman’s Guide to the Foundations of Social Intelligence. India: Educreation Publishing.
  • Bhawuk, D. (2011). Spirituality and Indian psychology: lessons from the Bhagavad-Gita. Springer Science & Business Media.
  • Malhotra, R. (2021). Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power: 5 Battlegrounds. Rupa.
  • Nandram, S., Bindlish, P. K., & Keizer, N. (2018). Integrative Intelligence for a Trust-based Worldview for Business. The European Business Review (London, 2005), 2018(September), 38-43.
  • Nandram, S. S., Sukhada, S., Joshi, A., & Bindlish, P. K. (2022). Understanding Human Values through Integrative Dialogue: The Śāstrārtha Method. In Global Perspectives on Indian Spirituality and Management: The Legacy of SK Chakraborty (pp. 91-106). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
  • Nandram, S. S., & Bindlish, P. K. (2022). 17 Indigenous Studies with an Integrative Research Approach. Workplace Spirituality, 249.
  • Nandram, S. S. (2019). Integrative Spirituality in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. From How we do things to why we exist., Inaugural Speech. www.eurospes.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/sharda_nandram_lecture.pdf
  • Nandram, S. S. (2017). Understanding Integrative Intelligence: Embodied in S-model. Praan Group, Thee Netherlands.
  • Purohit, H., & Joshi, A. (2016). Applying Traditional Process of Shastrarth in Management: Experiences at Wisdom, Banasthali Vidyapith. Banasthali Vidyapith (March 26, 2016). Applying Traditional Process of Shastrarth in Management: Experiences at Wisdom, Banasthali Vidyapith by Harsh Purohit, Ankur Joshi :: SSRN