PRESENTATION

ON
Truth in the AI era
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
DR.VIKAS DARYAL MITHUN
PROFESSOR MBA-PREVIOUS
TIMT 20232109
 I still remember, in my school days, when my classmates and I fell into an argument about who invented
“the zero” (the zero of 0, 1, 2, 3…), some of them said “god” and some others said, “Zero was always there
and didn’t need any invention.” And when we finally went to our maths teacher, who said “Euclid”, we fell
quiet: Our strict maths teacher, whom we respected and, I should confess, feared (he could fail you if you
went against his instructions, and in that school, if you failed in maths, you risked not being promoted to the
next class). What our school teachers asserted was the “truth”.
 It took me another 25 years to figure out that Euclid had nothing to do with it and the zero was a creation of
some ancient Indian, possibly Aryabhatta or Brahmagupta.
 As I write this today and a battle royale is raging between ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity and
several others about which of these artificial intelligence tools provides the most “truthful” answers,
 I cannot help but think of all the other contenders for such a role in the past few decades. For me, other than
our school teachers, there was my mother (amma), the young uncles and aunts in our home while we grew
up, our cricket coach (“will a yorker work on this pitch”), Encyclopedia Britannica in our school library and
many others.
 It appears that I, like all other humans, have always needed an arbitrator whose judgement helped us decide
what was “right” or “correct”. In recent years it has been internet search engines like Google claiming the
role that my amma, my school and college teachers and the Encyclopedias played in my life. And it looks
like the new claimant will be the winner of the Chat AI battles going on.
 Maybe we will learn something about us human beings if we find out what type of questions we folks ask
ChatGPT, for example. It appears that the topmost category of questions is fact-checking questions such as
“who was the 16th President of the US?” or “How far is Calcutta from New Delhi?” The second-most
popular type of question is about weather information: “How’s the weather in Bangalore today?”
 The third-most popular are language questions: “What does the word ‘epicentre’ mean?”). The fourth-most
popular are technology-related (“How can I improve this Python code?”). And, finally, the fifth-most
popular are about historical events and personalities (“Who was C V Raman?”).
 All these, on reflection, are not much different than what I (and, I am sure, you dear reader) asked my
school teachers, my amma, my dad, my uncles, and aunts in our growing-up years.
 It appears that in February 2024 alone, more than 180 million people in the world asked ChatGPT at least
one such question with India (at 9 per cent of all users) coming close to the United States (10 per cent of all
users) in the ranking of users by country. People in the 30-44 age group use it the most, followed by those in
the 18-29 age group. Does this mean that a whole new generation is growing up learning their “truth” from
ChatGPT and its like? And this, of course, brings up a sensitive and complex question: Do ChatGPT,
Gemini and their like require regulatory supervision?
 We can of course, as a country, save ourselves the bother by banning these products outright as China,
Russia, Iran and some others have done, but that is not India’s style.
 So, before answering that question, it is worth casting a glance on our present system of establishing the
“truth”. For example, to establish whether a business’s financial statements are “truthful” we have a system
whereby a group of people called “chartered accountants” must certify that.
 If one member in a married couple wants to exit from the marriage, they have to appear before a court and
establish the “truth” of that claim. If you want to sell a medicinal “drug” in India, you must get that certified
by the drug controller, a government authority. Before releasing a film in India, you have to get the ok of the
Central Board of Film Certification. For the internet India has regulations under which government bodies
can make a request to internet sites to remove certain types of content (“porn” and “defamatory” are two
such types).
 The breakthrough regulation that prevented the internet being choked down by law suits and screams is the
separation of action on the internet between the creators of content and “intermediaries”, where internet sites
were classified as mere “intermediaries” who provided tools for publishing content and the actual
responsibility for content was borne by people who created and posted the content.
 This was done by inserting Section 79 of the India Information Technology Act 2000, which, many
observers note, was what made the internet possible (disclosure: I personally wrote it as a member of a
government committee).
 While there is little doubt that some types of content on ChatGPT-type entities will generate protests in
India and lead to such content being directed officially to be removed, the larger question is: Can ChatGPT-
type content creators lead to influencing public opinion in “wrong” or “prejudiced” directions, particularly
among impressionable young people?
 More importantly, should ChatGPT-type entities be granted the legal role of “intermediaries” under the
Indian IT Act when they themselves are increasingly claiming to “generate” original content? What new
legislation will protect the “truth” while at the same time not discouraging innovation in this area?
1. Reflective Concept: This is evident in the author's reminiscence about his own learning
journey, particularly regarding the invention of zero and the subsequent realization of its
origins. Reflective concepts involve looking back on past experiences, critically
analyzing them, and deriving insights from them. The author reflects on how past
authorities, such as teachers and encyclopedias, influenced his understanding of truth,
which leads to a contemplation of how contemporary entities like AI tools are now
serving a similar role.
2. Formative Concept: This concept pertains to the shaping of knowledge and
understanding over time. The narrative illustrates how various sources, including
teachers, family members, and educational resources like encyclopedias, played
formative roles in the author's development of knowledge and perception of truth. The
text also suggests that modern entities like search engines and AI tools are now playing
similar formative roles in shaping people's understanding of truth and reality.

Both reflective and formative concepts are intertwined in the narrative, reflecting on
past influences while also considering the evolving role of technology in shaping
contemporary understanding and perception.
THANKYOU