01 October,2021 01:20 PM IST | Mumbai | BrandMedia
Roshan Shetty
The great economic depression, two world wars, and a cold war paved the way for free markets and globalization in the last century. We saw innovations at a break-neck speed touching every aspect of life. We stepped into the 21st century with tremendous optimism about improving the human condition. But as all great progressions encounter a speed-bump, so did we with the impact of the ongoing pandemic. Covid-19 pushed us back into our homes and into the pre-globalization era where local and essential services were the only things known.
The Covid crisis clashed with our march into the robotic age. With all our insights on exponential growth, how could we be bogged down, and for how long? Despite the restraints bought about by Covid-19, we stepped up the pace of automation through Artificial intelligence (AI) in our professional and personal lives. Education has moved online. So have all forms of entertainment and recreation. Professionals are working on the go and connecting to everyone, anywhere in the world seamlessly.
The idea of watching a movie on 70mm or eating out in a restaurant is now so 2019! This pandemic will go down as a watershed event in our history as things that were supposed to happen ten or fifteen years from now are happening right now.
But hold on to your straps! Before you get astounded by the intelligence displayed by your apps in movies, food, clothing, investments, and so on, take a pause. There will be a tsunami of inventions that will come up on your screens to take advantage of your home-stay, promising to make lives better. But will they?
Traditionally, we have been mindless in the consumption of technology sold into aid comfort and convenience. The alteration in our choices and chores are helping build the AI systems at large corporations. We need to reflect on the way we consume technology. Make no mistake; if you get
this right, it could work wonders for you. If not, you will be ruled by intelligence that will supersede yours.
Therefore, this progression of technology establishes the need for building deeper Emotional Intelligence (EI) - to understand how we react to different situations. You need to know that you are not the emotion but only in the grip of a transient response to an external stimulus. Knowing that because an app or system has popped up a product, you need not buy it or subscribe to it.
The decisive question is not whether AI will be better than human intelligence. That it will be, considering the accuracy of data analysis, insights, and processing capability. The mystery is if we can develop sound EI alongside AI in a post-Covid world or will we plunge into the realms of automation that leaves no scope for thought and decisions. Are we up for the challenge?
Roshan Shetty wrote the above article. Roshan Shetty is the author of the self-help book Shift Left, corporate coach, and mentor. Learn more about his work at https://www.roshanshetty.com
