AI’s here. There’s no place to hide.

Today I heard Paul McCartney singing a song that John Lennon is famous for Imagine The music was exactly as in the original hit but the voicemdashdefinitely not Lennon and quite a lot like Paul If I didnrsquot tell you it was generated using AImdashor artificial intelligencemdashyou would not have doubted it was actually Paul Listen to it here httpsyoutubeeHXP1UZ7IOYMeanwhile TikTok has been ablaze with wellknown musical names like Drake and Michael Jackson singing songs they never really sang Itrsquos that olrsquo AI again making people do and say things they never did The music industry has its knickers in a twist and the question du jour is Does an artist even own his voiceAs far back as February this year I asked ChatGPT to explain to me why dogs chase their own tails but do it in the style of Vladimir Nabokov It did right away In this seemingly aimless pursuit dear reader dogs find moments of pure joy and amusement transcending rationalityAlso Read People matter in urban designI asked for a J D Salinger version Presto That chase of the tail Itrsquos like theyrsquore sayinrsquo ldquoHey whatrsquos this thing doinrsquo back here Can I conquer itrdquoWhat about an Alice Munro take Asked and given And oh the joy they find in this whimsical pursuit Dogs creatures of simplicity discover moments of pure bliss amidst the absurdityFrom San Francisco came Replika an AIpowered chatbot that created a virtual girlfriend who would be everythingthe real gal could never bemdashalways available sexy on demand sassy caring and beautiful and with a perfect madetoorder lifelike avatar Replika is already facing legal suits for sexually inappropriate content and for manipulating emotionally vulnerable people both powered by AIMeanwhile an AIpowered drone is flying out from Canada capable of cutting hazardous crop sprays down 90 per cent by precisiontargeting only the weeds leaving the main crop aloneEveryone is playing with the new AI toy fascinated terrified obsessed It seems there is no area of our lives that are safe from AI from our jobs to the contents of our refrigeratorsThe big question is What canrsquot it do And how soon before it does everything we do better than we do itIrsquove had an answer to this question since the 1980s when I helped introduce digital typesetting technology to a nowlongdefunct newspaper called Patriot Itrsquos a single sentence and it covers every possible technology or invention that you could throw at me past present and futureIf it can be done it will be doneWe donrsquot decide what a new technology will do for us It tells us what it is capable of We obey no matter how absurd or dangerous the suggestion Sooner or later we make it do things it was never meant to do Indians especially the poorest of us discovered this long ago and called it jugaadToothpicks will pick teeth yes but some lass will make trending earrings out of them They will also be converted into miniature flagpoles used for managing small wires and cables and twisted to become bubble wands In the hands of a modern terrorist they will become lethal weapons capable of puncturing the carotidRubber tyres will become the village swings cheap chairs when halfburied in the sand outside a dhaba and exercise equipment where a gym is too costlyBicyclesmdashoh what a universe of utilities they bring beyond getting from point A to B As a boy I watched them being used to sharpen knives the cyclistrsquos pedalling spun a whetstone In Africa in villages cut off from power supply the same action generates electricity that is used immediately formdashwhat elsemdash charging cellphonesNo doubt someone somewhere has already discovered that music can come from the bicyclersquos spokes and that brisk pedalling can pump water from a wellToothpicks bicycles and rubber tyres were the technologies that served us before computers social media and AI came along But we are now in a brave new world of drones stem cells that can grow new eyes for old the ability to create fake human beings who behave preposterously and brain implants that could one day let you download your lifersquos memories onto a hard diskThe genie is out of the bottle Or perhaps more accurately the toothpaste is out of the tube It cant be put back The technology that is invading our lives and minds can do things its creators never intended or envisaged The best among us will create uses that enrich us and light up our lives But nothing we do will stop the worst among us from creating the deepest possible darknessThat drone that delivers your daily vegetables and Amazon goodies will also bomb civilians from a height in distant lands and help your government monitor your movementsPeople will be delighted and people will be hurt People will live better lives but some will exist in misery The technology will decide what you can do with itSo I repeat If it can be done it will be doneSooner or laterYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper