A long journey
Universal sharing of information and messages evolved with the innovation of woodblock print in China during the Tang dynasty in the 6th century AD to Gutenberg’s mechanical printing press in 1440. In addition to sharing information it also helped in spreading literacy. These are the bygone facts. Today we carry in our pocket a digital press, a library, a photo album, a newsroom, a TV, a camera and a wireless communication tower in the form of a smartphone weighing just about 200 grams. With this device people can organise audio & video conferences on the spot wherever they are. In addition, these 200-gram devices in our pocket can read books to you and dispatch your written and voice messages to anyone anywhere you want. People’s lives change with every new discovery, some positive & some negative depending on how one uses it. With the ascendance of artificial intelligence (AI), we may be entering a new phase in human history away from nature, dictated by technology. Where will it end, no one can predict, only hope for the best.
Intuitive beginning
The gestation of artificial intelligence began in 1950 when a notion of creating an ‘intelligent machine’ that could one day be as smart as humans was imagined by Alan Turing in 1950. Turing was the chief scientist at GCSC from1938-1945, (predecessor of GCHQ) in breaking German Enigma cipher codes during WWII. Turing, a British mathematician graduated from Cambridge University, England dreamed of a machine that could be trained like children to perform any computation which one day could imitate human thinking and reasoning. Turing’s pioneering work on ‘Computing machinery and intelligence’, published in October 1950 includes the theoretical concept of learning from experience and neural networks is the base for today’s philosophical and practical foundation of computers, algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Sadly, he took his own life in June 1954 at an age of 42 due to an unfortunate event. If Turing is alive today, would he have agreed to the way AI is applied?
In 1955, a 28-year-old John McCarthy, an American psychology graduate who joined the faculty of mathematics in Dartmouth college, imagined creating a ‘thinking machine’, similar to Turing in 1950. In 1956 McCarthy met Marvin Minsky in the faculty of mathematics at Princeton who had a similar inkling. There are no records of meetings between Turing and McCarthy & Minsky. What is clear is that McCarthy & Minsky established the formal academic field and coined the term artificial intelligence based on the foundation laid by Alan Turing focusing on mathematical logic, language of rational thought processes, with inspiration from biology & psychology ‘to create a brain-like programme that can also consider statistical probabilities to deal with uncertainty’.
The funding proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation states that ‘every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be in principle so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it’. What we are witnessing today is the product of what was imagined by Turing and subsequent works by McCarthy & Minsky. Is there more to come, most likely yes.
AI & humanity
Every new technology influences human habit, some good, some not so good. AI technology is applied in major manufacturing, industrial automation, financial services, transportation, cybersecurity, health care, retail outlets, technology development, marketing, warfare and media. Based on aggregated data from various companies the return on investment was found to be $3.7 for every dollar invested in AI technology (Avanto newsletter, 16 June 2026). Approximately 78% of public and private firms have integrated AI in their workflow. It would mean AI has reshaped hundreds of millions of work places globally impacting millions of workforces. Microsoft for example is bidding farewell to 7% of its technical staff as their job has been assigned to AI. But discussion on job loss due to integration of AI is conveniently muted. This is in sharp contrast to the hoopla of AI creating jobs when AI began its market appearance. There are at least 15 major AI companies providing AI technology to the end users; but there are thousands of startups joining the bandwagon.
Many applications of AI in the market today perhaps may not be the intentions of Turing or McCarthy; we will never know. Damaging applications of AI are becoming an issue of concern but financial interest and freedom of choice have overruled all concerns. In addition, cyberattack could become a serious concern as reported by Open AI citing a case where a frontier AI model autonomously attacked a rival AI company. At the individual level everyone is vulnerable to cyberattack with personal information stored in cyberspace.
When one buys software or hardware one has to agree to the terms & conditions outlining legal contracts printed with small fonts which no one reads or understands. All devices require biometrics of the user such as thumb print or a retinal scan associated with personal email, which is stored in a cyber vault managed by the tech giants. Then we have voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa & Gemini which are among at least 15 voice assistants available in the market. They are very helpful in giving us answers to our questions in seconds but they are also listening to us 24/7. All our information is stored in cyberspace with different names given by their owners such as Apple’s iCloud, Amazon’s S3, Google cloud storage, etc.
Known known and known unknown
The WFP database of some two million residents of Gaza was hacked on 14 May 2026 which includes personal information such as location, phone numbers, etc. There are databases of all kinds from national strategic infrastructures to individuals. At the individual level there is a database of UN retirees in the UNFCU, UN insurers with Cigna International Health, UN employees with individual organisations. Hacking of WFP databases shows that firewalls can be incinerated. The bottom line is that the entire humanity appears to be at the altar of AI waiting to be sacrificed for financial benefit of a shrewd operator who can manipulate the AI for personal benefit. On a broader scale AI technology can assist or interfere in governance, businesses, warfare, international relations and social & personal affairs, one likes or not. How will humanity co-exist with AI? AI has defeated Garry Kasparov in a chess game. Is it in the process of defeating humanity? Maybe.
In people-oriented democratic governance, the government & people believe in freedom of choice. The governments are not willing to put any restriction on further research & application of AI technology including in warfare, despite tacit recognition of its risks. It is likely that the future systems that could be created by AI may be far more intrusive and dangerous to privacy and security of individuals, institutions and countries worldwide.
AI is a lifeless entity and does not recognise human values and has no ethics. Who is in-charge to safeguard people and countries against vulnerability created by AI? Destructive applications of AI are becoming an issue of concern but financial interest and freedom of choice have overruled all concerns. AI has become a threat to personal security but above all it has become a threat to Global Peace and Humanity itself.
Read More By Ramesh: here
Universal sharing of information and messages evolved with the innovation of woodblock print in China during the Tang dynasty in the 6th century AD to Gutenberg’s mechanical printing press in 1440. In addition to sharing information it also helped in spreading literacy. These are the bygone facts. Today we carry in our pocket a digital press, a library, a photo album, a newsroom, a TV, a camera and a wireless communication tower in the form of a smartphone weighing just about 200 grams. With this device people can organise audio & video conferences on the spot wherever they are. In addition, these 200-gram devices in our pocket can read books to you and dispatch your written and voice messages to anyone anywhere you want. People’s lives change with every new discovery, some positive & some negative depending on how one uses it. With the ascendance of artificial intelligence (AI), we may be entering a new phase in human history away from nature, dictated by technology. Where will it end, no one can predict, only hope for the best.
Intuitive beginning
The gestation of artificial intelligence began in 1950 when a notion of creating an ‘intelligent machine’ that could one day be as smart as humans was imagined by Alan Turing in 1950. Turing was the chief scientist at GCSC from1938-1945, (predecessor of GCHQ) in breaking German Enigma cipher codes during WWII. Turing, a British mathematician graduated from Cambridge University, England dreamed of a machine that could be trained like children to perform any computation which one day could imitate human thinking and reasoning. Turing’s pioneering work on ‘Computing machinery and intelligence’, published in October 1950 includes the theoretical concept of learning from experience and neural networks is the base for today’s philosophical and practical foundation of computers, algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Sadly, he took his own life in June 1954 at an age of 42 due to an unfortunate event. If Turing is alive today, would he have agreed to the way AI is applied?
In 1955, a 28-year-old John McCarthy, an American psychology graduate who joined the faculty of mathematics in Dartmouth college, imagined creating a ‘thinking machine’, similar to Turing in 1950. In 1956 McCarthy met Marvin Minsky in the faculty of mathematics at Princeton who had a similar inkling. There are no records of meetings between Turing and McCarthy & Minsky. What is clear is that McCarthy & Minsky established the formal academic field and coined the term artificial intelligence based on the foundation laid by Alan Turing focusing on mathematical logic, language of rational thought processes, with inspiration from biology & psychology ‘to create a brain-like programme that can also consider statistical probabilities to deal with uncertainty’.
The funding proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation states that ‘every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can be in principle so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it’. What we are witnessing today is the product of what was imagined by Turing and subsequent works by McCarthy & Minsky. Is there more to come, most likely yes.
AI & humanity
Every new technology influences human habit, some good, some not so good. AI technology is applied in major manufacturing, industrial automation, financial services, transportation, cybersecurity, health care, retail outlets, technology development, marketing, warfare and media. Based on aggregated data from various companies the return on investment was found to be $3.7 for every dollar invested in AI technology (Avanto newsletter, 16 June 2026). Approximately 78% of public and private firms have integrated AI in their workflow. It would mean AI has reshaped hundreds of millions of work places globally impacting millions of workforces. Microsoft for example is bidding farewell to 7% of its technical staff as their job has been assigned to AI. But discussion on job loss due to integration of AI is conveniently muted. This is in sharp contrast to the hoopla of AI creating jobs when AI began its market appearance. There are at least 15 major AI companies providing AI technology to the end users; but there are thousands of startups joining the bandwagon.
Many applications of AI in the market today perhaps may not be the intentions of Turing or McCarthy; we will never know. Damaging applications of AI are becoming an issue of concern but financial interest and freedom of choice have overruled all concerns. In addition, cyberattack could become a serious concern as reported by Open AI citing a case where a frontier AI model autonomously attacked a rival AI company. At the individual level everyone is vulnerable to cyberattack with personal information stored in cyberspace.
When one buys software or hardware one has to agree to the terms & conditions outlining legal contracts printed with small fonts which no one reads or understands. All devices require biometrics of the user such as thumb print or a retinal scan associated with personal email, which is stored in a cyber vault managed by the tech giants. Then we have voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa & Gemini which are among at least 15 voice assistants available in the market. They are very helpful in giving us answers to our questions in seconds but they are also listening to us 24/7. All our information is stored in cyberspace with different names given by their owners such as Apple’s iCloud, Amazon’s S3, Google cloud storage, etc.
Known known and known unknown
The WFP database of some two million residents of Gaza was hacked on 14 May 2026 which includes personal information such as location, phone numbers, etc. There are databases of all kinds from national strategic infrastructures to individuals. At the individual level there is a database of UN retirees in the UNFCU, UN insurers with Cigna International Health, UN employees with individual organisations. Hacking of WFP databases shows that firewalls can be incinerated. The bottom line is that the entire humanity appears to be at the altar of AI waiting to be sacrificed for financial benefit of a shrewd operator who can manipulate the AI for personal benefit. On a broader scale AI technology can assist or interfere in governance, businesses, warfare, international relations and social & personal affairs, one likes or not. How will humanity co-exist with AI? AI has defeated Garry Kasparov in a chess game. Is it in the process of defeating humanity? Maybe.
In people-oriented democratic governance, the government & people believe in freedom of choice. The governments are not willing to put any restriction on further research & application of AI technology including in warfare, despite tacit recognition of its risks. It is likely that the future systems that could be created by AI may be far more intrusive and dangerous to privacy and security of individuals, institutions and countries worldwide.
AI is a lifeless entity and does not recognise human values and has no ethics. Who is in-charge to safeguard people and countries against vulnerability created by AI? Destructive applications of AI are becoming an issue of concern but financial interest and freedom of choice have overruled all concerns. AI has become a threat to personal security but above all it has become a threat to Global Peace and Humanity itself.
Read More By Ramesh: here
Or contact Ramesh at ramesh.chauni@gmail.com
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