The Hindu Huddle 2025: “AI will amplify, not replace, human capacity”

Paranoia around rapid advancements in AI is misplaced and technology would only amplify, and not replace human capacity, experts at a panel discussion said. The discussion titled AI for All: Dream of Democratised and Ethical AI was moderated by author Manu Joseph and had Astha Kapoor, Co-founder, Aapti Institute, Kalika Bali, Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research, India and Tanvi Lall, Strategy, People + AI as experts.

To think of AI as an instrument of absolute and malicious power was wrong, said Ms. Bali. “Technology can amplify human efforts both good and bad. There are questions that we need to manage right now - such as whether the data that is used to train AI is representative of the global majority, how do we ensure that models are aware of the context, how to reduce the risk of biases etc.”

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The nature of jobs will change and new jobs will be created, but the new ones also will be redundant soon as technology advances, pointed out Ms. Kapoor. “The most vulnerable jobs right now are those in the BPO industry. There will new jobs in managing the data is being generated. There will be chaos and is need for regulation, social security, skill development and preparedness,” she said.

Ms. Lall said AI has opened up the opportunity for learning for the curious people. AI and technology can take care of a range of routine work, and humans can turn their attention to creative and critical areas. The experts were of the opinion that in this phase of rapid changes, the human capacity to think critically and make sense of the cognitive overload will be of value. 

The Hindu Huddle 2025 is presented by Sami-Sabinsa Group

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