"Can you trust AI, however? Is AI someone like one’s acquaintance?"

A Rewarding Day Today | Debate III

II MA Students at their Debating Best!

#classactivity

Rapporteur: Sneha Dominic

Photographer: Diya Susan Roy

Debating Hour | II MA Class

Well, yesterday, students were asked to vote for their choice of topic, from among five topics given to them, in their WhatsApp poll. 

Sharan Srinivasan, Class Rep, II MA English, coordinated the poll so well, and the verdict was out in no time!

The class had overwhelmingly voted for the topic, Has Technology Made Our Lives Comfortable/Uncomfortable?

Here goes the full report of the grand debating hour, prepared so meticulously, by Sneha Dominic.

The Two Teams

Team A for ‘Technology makes life comfortable’

Team B: Technology makes life uncomfortable.

‘Comfortable’ team with 8 members vs ‘Uncomfortable’ team with 7 members

Team B (represented by Benita) won the coin toss by choosing tails.

Benita gives the opening statement: Technology has made man lazy.

●     Uninterested in reading newspapers and books

●     Life has become artificial

●     Although there are positives, negatives outweigh them.

Kevin’s rebuttal: Technology is useful in multiple ways, for example, chatGPT is used by students to aid in their studies and even examinations. 

There are multiple sources of information available online, multiple news outlets available for free, without paying subscription monthly. 

This is environment friendly as well because no paper is wasted. News are also livestreamed 24/7 on YouTube. Way more information at fingertips than is available in daily life.

Sruthi: All of this is true, yet there is the question of reliability, one cannot trust these sources for accurate information. Plus, technology is undependable as devices may run out of charge or data, rendering it useless in emergency situations.

Kevin: Technology is indispensable, as it aids in accesing medical care, ambulances, food, commutation services in the blink of an eye.

Shane: ChatGPT has made us lazy, not allowing us to think, thus ruining our intellectual capabilities and in turn, ruining our careers. Using technology as a crutch can ultimately lead to no good.

Sruthi: Moreover, over usage of the internet can lead us to the hospital, our health and physical abilities are affected, eye problems are common among those who use technology constantly.

Kevin: One cannot generalise that technology make people lazy, as it depends on the person using it. The same goes for lack of interest in reading and day to day life. Plus, technology only aids in time management, as it makes us more efficient, – one cannot visit all the libraries in the world to research but technology makes this possible with one touch.

Shane: However, the feel of a real book in your hands cannot be matched by technology. You also can’t read an e-book for a long time as it affects your eyesight.

Kevin: Books need to be preserved, it can tear and thus perish. This is not an issue faced by e-books. Moreover, you can adjust the font and size to your liking and convenience.

Sruthi: [Recounted a personal anecdote, recalling the books left to her by her late grandfather, which is the only way she can remember him.] 

Nothing beats the emotional connect one has to books, which are a way of remembering.

Kevin: Memory can also be preserved through photos and videos, which are the prevalent mode of preserving moments today. Thus technology also helps preserve.

Sruthi: But those photos and videos can be deleted, technology is error-prone.

Kevin: Human error is what causes this to happen!

Harini: There is also Cloud storage backup which helps retrieve pictures if deleted.

Junos: What about online scams which are rampant today, photos can be morphed and you can be hacked. Thus technology is a bane.

Harini: It is people who do the scamming, technology is merely the medium. Again, human error is the factor which comes into play.

Beera: Even before modern technological advances, scamming and gambling was existent.

Junos: But it is undeniable that technology has made it infinitely easier to manipulate and cheat people.

Jaysudha: There are more negative impacts to technology. It worsens many of the problems faced by humans today, like overpopulation and unemployment, AI has started replacing human jobs, thus causing severe unemployment crisis.

Tamil Mani: Violation of privacy is also an issue

Harini: With advances in AI, the medical field is also improved. Experimental surgery with machines are also advancing these days. The question of human error is thus removed from the equation. All of these will only take mankind forward.

Jaysudha: Machines are still taking away doctors’ jobs… they are people who spend most of their lives working towards the goal of becoming a doctor. This is cruel.

Shane: We have to consider affordability as well… experimental surgery might be accessible only to the privileged elite classes.

Kevin: These discoveries will get cheaper as time goes on, thus becoming available to everyone in time.

Diya: What will be the state of affairs if all jobs are efficiently done by machines…what will happen to human society then? There will be no more jobs, thus making it impossible to earn a living and survive in this world.

Kevin: We accept that technology does not have the empathy factor that human beings do, however, the margin for error is almost completely deleted, especially in diagnosis for serious ailments. Technology is merely a tool used to speed up the process. We aren’t condemning doctors, technology is merely a good tool to be wielded by them.

Sruthi: There are many medical laws in place which ensure than even though machines perform the surgery, it is ultimately supervised by a human being. Therefore, the human touch is inevitable.

Kevin: Human nature is susceptible to corruption, and emotions can cloud ones judgement. 

Sneha: One has to consider the ethical question as well. All human doctors are required to take the Hippocratic oath by which they abide all their lives. Although certain ethics can be programmed into robots, they will be unable to make the spontaneous split second ethical decisions which a human is able to, should the situation arise.

Kevin: One cannot trust that all doctors follow the oath they take…there are many corrupt doctors. This is one of the reasons why people chose to consult their relatives or acquaintances in case of a medical issue, rather than a stranger. Trust is a key factor

Diya: Can you trust AI, however? Is AI someone like one’s acquaintance?

Beera: The debate seems to be veering off track.

Harini: There are many instances that prove that AI can only make your life easier. From reducing travel time to increasing convenience just by choosing to use Google Pay, life is undergoing a constant digitalization.

Jaysudha: Because of this, people in general have lost touch with patience and human contact.

Sharan [gives personal anecdote from the time he suffered an accident]: Food being delivered to your doorstep is a blessing for people who arent able to cook for themselves.

Sneha: Food delivery apps (and other apps) forcefully take people’s data, and sell it for profit. There is no concept of privacy anymore. The invasive ads put out by these aps are also an inconvenience for people.

Kevin: But technology enables us to videocall your friends all over the world at once if needed

Mugundhan: Because of excessive digitalization, people have lost the ability to interact face to face, they have stopped talking to the person next to them. There is an extreme depersonalization, there is no socialisation.

Abhishek: It still does not change the fact that apps like Google Pay does not make life comfortable.

Diya: Technology, for example, Zomato takes advantage of the human mind’s frailty, and susceptibility to pathos. Moreover, the idea of comfort is not making a phone call.

Sharan: Long distance relationships would not survive without technology to support it,

Kevin: During Covid times, technology was the only way to stay connected to the world outside. For medicines, food, groceries, etc, we depended only on technology.

Sneha: The main problems faced by people during Covid was the lack of connection to other humans, and the excessive dependence on technology.

One of the most concerning aftermaths of Covid itself was the mental illnesses like depression, anxiety etc which developed as a result of this addiction to devices. Here, technology did indeed make lives uncomfortable.

Brindha: For introverts, cell phones are their escape from the overwhelming world around them. In this case, technology does make life comfortable.

Shane: In the future, there would be many circumstances where one is forced to have interpersonal relations and interactions with numerous persons. Technology would cripple your social skills and thus be detrimental to your emotional growth.

Teacher’s Remarks: Well, to cap it up, both teams did remarkably well, and they spoke with such conviction and confidence.

As Sneha had so rightly quipped, ‘It’s not whether technology has made us quite comfortable or uncomfortable, but rather, it’s on how we use technology that decides whether it’s comfortable or uncomfortable!’

That so beautifully sums up the essence of today’s memorable third debate of the semester.

Thank you dear class for making it so memorable and rewarding for all of us. Special kudos to Beera Rajan for maneuvering back the debate to the main topic, when the arguments were slowly veering away – focusing more on technology vs the medical field. Special thanks to Diya Susan Roy for the excellent photography. 

On the whole, it was a real delightful, thrilling and memorable debating hour!