More than a year ago, when I decided to start a series on Travel Tips, called Trip Elf: Your Travel Buddy, I remember having a quick chat with Mia, my little princess. She was about to turn nine then. For most of my articles, I used my clicks as the title picture. I wanted something different this time.
Mia came up with a lovely
idea. She said, ‘Appa, you give me the storyline, I’ll draw a picture for you’.
There was one condition though. I had to promise to her that all the pictures
in this series will be hers. Our sweet partnership started with that. Since then,
I had written seven stories in the series, and she drew the pictures for most
of them. But something was destined to change.
It was time for the next story
in the series. I got the points ready and even detailed the content in my mind.
All what was required was to put the pen to the paper. But before publishing
the story, I obviously needed a title picture from my daughter.
As usual I had given her the
plot and discussed the requirements for the image with her. She was all set to
create another beautiful image for the next one in my series. After a couple of
days, I reminded her about the picture so that I could post the article. That
was when an end-of-the-chapter-test came as an impediment for her. She seemed
to have already mastered the art of prioritizing her tasks, something as adults,
we still struggle.
Since she was unable to
provide me with the image, I decided to negotiate with her. As the content was
almost ready, I did not want to delay the publishing any further. Hence, I
suggested a fallback option as a one-time exception. Copilot! The wonderful
world of AI opened in front of us. Interestingly, she did not resist the idea.
Together we explored the
prompt engineering experience of AI. After a couple of attempts, Copilot generated
a beautiful image fully assimilating our requirement. We decided to use the
image. But the instruction from my daughter was quite clear. This is a one-time
exception due to time constraint, and it should remain that way.
The story will be published
soon with the AI image created, instead of a beautiful art form by my darling
daughter! I know it is a one-off as my daughter’s happiness will always be more
important than the happiness of publishing another article bypassing her
creativity.
Meanwhile, this is a powerful
reminder of what is happening around the world today. People find easier alternatives
with AI to perform tasks that needed human beings earlier. For me personally,
it is also a reminder to keep emotional and social aspects in mind, while
trying to take decisions to embrace AI.
If you are one such decision maker in an organisation who decides on the fate of an employee in favour of AI, it may be worthwhile asking these questions?
- Is AI worth letting go of someone who trusted you and gave their best?
- Is there an alternate way of using the AI along with your valuable and loyal employees?
- Have you really quantified and qualified the effectiveness of AI before letting go the people who helped you build the organization?
In the end, let us all
remember this. All of us who knew what the term Y2K means, have survived a
similar onslaught of internet. Let me not say, this too shall pass. Instead, we
shall survive this as well.
Here is a toast to a world that
looks forward to AI along with U & I.
