Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a critical technology that has applications in myriad domains like microeconomics, biotech, and Internet-of-things (IoT).

It is not just a buzzword but one of the huge breakthroughs of the modern era that aims to alter the way we interact with everyday objects. This generative AI accessibility means that, for the first time ever, anyone in an organisation can use advanced technology to innovate their workflows and this unlocks entirely new possibilities at an individual or organisational level. Every aspect of intelligence and every structure of the learning process can be described very precisely in a way that teaches a machine how to simulate it, at which point Artificial Intelligence (AI) was established as a new field of study and research and generated extraordinary expectations.

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AI is the ability of a machine to imitate human functions such as reasoning, learning, planning and creativity. AI systems are able to adapt their behaviour to some extent by analysing the effects of previous actions and operating autonomously. Some AI technologies have been around for over 50 years, but increased computing power, the availability of enormous amounts of data, and new algorithms have led to major advances in AI in recent years. Artificial intelligence is considered a central element of the digital transformation of society. But, artificial intelligence also represents an opportunity for our societies to become more socially and environmentally fair and sustainable through regulatory systems of public scrutiny and control.

The key question raised here is: “will AI be of help to create an equal society?” Higher education and knowledge production globally continue to be highly unequal, with the Euro-American epistemic hegemony and domination rooted in colonialism and white supremacy being presented as the real and ‘universal’ knowledge. At the same time, ‘other’ worldviews, largely from the Global South, continue to be side-lined and presented as something of lesser value and relevance. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have found that ChatGPT, currently one of the most popular generative AI platforms, “is heavily biased when it comes to cultural values”.

It promotes American norms and values and often presents them as ‘universal’ when asked to provide responses about concepts and other countries and cultures. This way, the researchers argue, ChatGPT acts as a “cultural imperialist tool that the United States, through its companies, uses to promote its values”. If that be so, AI will only perpetuate the division, not prevent it. As the journalist and New York University academic Professor Meredith Broussard points out, ‘better data’ is not the solution as long as the world remains riddled with systemic racism, sexism, ableism, patriarchy and other bigotries and social ills. Without systemic and structural societal change in the real world, would cleaning up the data that is fed into the AI platforms solve the problems?

A recent UNESCO paper on AI and education highlights that “education is – and should remain – a deeply human act, rooted in social interaction”. Every other aspect of intelligence and every structure of the learning process can be described very precisely in a way that teaches a machine how to simulate it. The question that arises is what makes knowledge production different? We can forget about human intelligence and critical thinking if we rely on AI to give us summaries of texts and materials. The purpose of education cannot be learning to write prompts and then reading summaries given to us by chatbots.

(The writer is former Dean, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.)