Last year there were two major strikes in Hollywood, by screenwriters and artists. Behind this twin-strike is the fear. ‘Joan Is Awful’ was an episode of the science fiction series Black Mirror on Netflix in the middle of last year. Among them was a TV show written by a computer and starring a computer-generated image of Salma Hayek.
In other words, technology is making people completely irrelevant even in areas like entertainment. The cold stream of fear about artificial intelligence that flows through the head of human civilization today, but this fear is at work in the heart of it – the fear of human displacement in general, the fear of being replaced, the fear of every inch of life being taken over by artificial intelligence.
This ‘Joan is Awful’ episode was made before ChatGPT came into the market. ChatGPT is a turning point in the history of civilization, after its appearance, it is like a fiction and a reality for people.
Last year there were two major strikes in Hollywood, by screenwriters and artists. Behind this twin-strike is the fear. This historic strike can be called a direct conflict between humans and artificial intelligence. That conflict is not in the realm of science fiction at all – it is on the ground of reality.
The apparent victory of the Writers Guild of America at the end of the first strike lasting 148 days, and the compromise of the actors’ union with the major studios at the end of the second movement lasting 118 days, is a milestone in the history of human civilization. The consensus is that, for now, AI cannot be used as a ‘writer’ in Hollywood; Actors will have ‘protection’ against unauthorized use of artificial intelligence.
Yes, ‘for now’. The reason is simple – this fight will continue. And today or tomorrow, the defeat of the writer-actors is also certain. In fact, this is an unequal fight. At one time, there was a movement to prevent the intrusion of computers into our lifestyles in various parts of the world – even in our West Bengal – due to the fear of massive layoffs.
The societies concerned may have forgotten when that struggle became pointless. The advent of computers has eliminated many old jobs, while many new jobs have also been created. This is the rule of civilization. Twenty years from now, people may be surprised to hear of today’s ‘historic’ Hollywood strike boys, where people are desperate to stop the ‘inevitable’ triumph of artificial intelligence.
In an interview in 2021, Nobel-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman said that technology is advancing ‘exponentially’, i.e. in constant qualitative progress, very fast; On the contrary, human progress is essentially in a ‘linear’ rhythm. In the race with the ‘linear’ humans, the victory of the ‘exponentially’ enriching artificial intelligence is certain. Rather, how people deal with this inevitability can be a fascinating observation. But that’s his children and grandchildren’s problem, not his, Kahneman said.
It is true that the way artificial intelligence works by churning through immense data and pattern matching is vastly different from the complex thinking of humans. However, it is also inevitable that artificial intelligence will perform magic in many areas of life in its excellence and productivity. The benefits of artificial intelligence are more. He shall not be paid salary or any allowance; No vacation needed. A minimum engineering system for maintenance once purchased is sufficient. So employers will be keen to hire robots for various tasks. The work of science fiction writers will also become increasingly difficult.
Hollywood actors may have protested for fear of being replaced, but artificial intelligence has already infiltrated the realm of acting. Actor Peter Cushing died in 1994, but his likeness was digitally created for the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In the 2019 film The Irishman, Robert De Niro’s age was reduced to different ages using artificial intelligence. Performance cloning is also happening. French footballer Mbappe was seen running in an ad for Chinese dairy company Mengnew. But actually running a human ‘double’, and using artificial intelligence-created digital masks.
As Hollywood grapples with the use of artificial intelligence, some companies have hired actors to collect data on their voices, faces, gestures and facial expressions, which will be fed into artificial intelligence databases, an October article in MIT Technology Review notes. With its use, the ‘virtual avatar’ will become more ‘human’. You must have noticed that when you make a special UPI payment at the grocery store in the neighborhood, Amitabh Bachchan’s voice saying ‘Deviyon aur Sajjano’ is announcing the deposit of money? That is also the application of artificial intelligence.
However, can artificial intelligence completely replace the magic of Salim-Javed’s pen, or the magic of Shah Rukh? Is it possible to completely replace actors in any film industry? Central to acting is the complexity of human emotions and experiences. Is artificial intelligence capable of dense depiction of the subtleties of human emotion? Does a robot with artificial intelligence have the ability to immerse the viewer in a deep emotional environment?
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But this intangible illusion is involved in all the strange fairy tales of life. This is the cornerstone of human civilization. On March 11, 1997, IBM’s chess computer ‘Deep Blue’ defeated legendary chess player Garry Kasparov in a turning point in the history of civilization. He is also a strong impact on people’s consciousness. The defeat of human intelligence to machine intelligence was sealed on that day. More than a century passed after that. Kasparov lost that day fighting.
Today’s machines are so advanced that there is no question of fighting. Today various famous chess engines with artificial intelligence will crush today’s world champion. But it is also certain that people will enjoy Magnus Carlsen and Rameshbabu Pragyananda’s fight with much more enthusiasm than watching two such chess engines โ ‘Alfajiro’ and ‘Stockfish’ โ play. This is where human intelligence and human touch will beat artificial intelligence any day. This is probably true in all aspects of life.
In the wake of the Hollywood actor movement, director Joe Russo sees artificial intelligence as a digital calculator that can increase our productivity by helping us do simple calculations.
Kasparov at first could not believe that the machine could defeat him. Incidentally, he became a symbol of the defeat of man over machines in the history of civilization. However, he learned from that defeat. In his 2018 book Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins, Kasparov argues that in some cases, the better way to fight is to incorporate artificial intelligence into our lives to augment human capabilities rather than to complain that machines are more powerful than us. In all areas of life. As in chess, today’s chess players benefit from practicing with artificial intelligence.
It is impossible for humans progressing at a ‘linear’ rate to fully bottle up the unbottled technology giant again; It is impossible to beat him. The exponential growth of artificial intelligence is also inevitable. Therefore, efforts to improve life and lifestyle by incorporating artificial intelligence into our lives in a well-thought-out and well-controlled manner seem to indicate the triumph of human wisdom. In a critical period, standing at a terrible turning point in civilization, we must confront this intriguing dilemma.
