The other day, Mia, my daughter who is in Grade 5 was studying for her upcoming exam. The chapter she was reading had a section that spoke about soil erosion and the impact that had on mother nature. The key aspect of soil erosion is that it deprives the nutrition rich topsoil that the fertility of the land gets directly affected.
As she continued her lesson, I
could not help but think about a travelogue I read two days ago. It was written
by a friend who loved traveling and kept writing about his trips. While I enjoy
reading travelogues, this time something was different. It lacked the usual warmth.
Somewhere the emotions were missing. I immediately checked with him and
understood that though he wrote the initial draft, further refining and the outcome
was achieved with the help of an AI tool.
When it comes to using AI for
writing, what I mentioned above is just a sample. These days many of us use AI
for several types of activities. Especially when it comes to writing, I know a
lot of people who use AI for drafting E-mails, sending minutes of meetings, and
even authoring articles. Of course, many follow the path my friend took. But have
you ever thought what truly happens each time you use AI for any of the above
actions? Your content gets created one way or the other, but you deprive the
outcome of your heart and soul.
Now, you could argue very
well that for an official E-mail or minutes of meetings, why do we need to
worry about emotions. From a pure business perspective, it makes sense. That is
perhaps how the future is going to be. Maybe the writer in me is yet to accept
the fact that I need someone or something else to do that job for me. Hence, I am
yet to take the help of an AI to do that job for me.
I also strongly believe that
the process of writing itself is a mini evolution. You do not just write and
send something. When you write, you go through multiple rounds of thinking, iterating
and re-iterating the thoughts in your mind and finally by the time you send the
content to the intended recipients, the points are deeply etched in your mind that
you can recollect them anytime in future. I really doubt if the heavy reliance
on AI will help with this. Time will tell.
As we are at a transition
point in our lives with AI looming over everything, I could not help but remember
another major transition many of us who were born before 90s have lived
through. We had seen how the age of writing letters using letter pads and pen
or inland letters or airmail gave way to E-mails and subsequently to instant messages.
I personally feel, none of the electronic form of communication were ever able
to replicate the warmth those physical letters. For all that matter, we all have
heard the anomaly that when the world got smaller, people shrunk even further
into themselves.
Just ask us this question. If
you were one who used to write letters on a regular basis to your family or
friends, do you do the same with E-mails or WhatsApp? Do you remember the
feeling you had when you were anticipating a reply from a dear cousin, and the
excitement when it was nearing the day when the letter was expected? Do you
remember waiting patiently for the postman to showup and either feel elated to
see him handing over to you the much-anticipated letter or feel dejected not to
have the letter arrive that day? Do you remember the feeling of happiness seeing
a new stamp affixed on the cover and the postal seal which had the place name where
the letter was posted? I am sure that some of us even felt the warmth and scent
of the person as soon as the letter was opened. These and many more were the
lost experiences when E-mails and later instant messaging replaced traditional letters.
If AI makes life easier, I am
all for it. But if I can help it, I would prefer not to lose the human touch
forever. I am also aware that certain changes are inevitable in life, and I
will eventually accept that. Just the way I do not write letters anymore and be
content with the deprecated emotions brought to me by the digital self of people
who write to me than let their physical-self converse with me. Just the way soil
erosion can create new landforms and landscapes, these emotional erosions may
create new avenues for us humans.
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