Will AI be a giant job slayer? Narayana Murthy says human mind 'most flexible instrument'

Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys, has dismissed concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to widespread job losses. He believes that AI will instead augment human intelligence and create new opportunities.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Murthy said that the human mind is the "most flexible instrument" and that AI will help people to "do more with less effort". He also recognised the critical importance of data in shaping machine learning, from ChatGPT-4 to supervised algorithmic thinking.

“Algorithms, whether it's unsupervised algorithms or semi-supervised, whatever it is, you need lot of data. You need to collect lot of data. Because at the end of the day, machine learning by and large is a very complex piece of pattern matching. Even ChatGPT has large language models. It's all about pattern matching,” the 77-year-old said.

Murthy emphasised on the significance of collecting enormous volumes of meaningful data specific to India's cultural and developmental setting, urging a move from an oral to a written culture.

Murthy drew similarities with prior technology breakthroughs to dispel fears that AI will leave coders useless. Reflecting on case tools from the 1970s, he emphasised the plasticity of the human mind as the most adaptable instrument.

Murthy said he sees AI as a tool to supplement, rather than replace human intellect, arguing that its genuine potential resides in addressing more difficult challenges and, as a result, making the world a better place.

“The moment you started thinking of bigger and more complex problems, these tools could not handle it. So what my personal feeling is, I may be wrong is that as long as we use AI as a tool to aid human beings to do bigger things, to do more complex things, I think we will start solving more complex problems,” he added.

Murthy also highlighted areas where AI can improve human capabilities, such as autonomous driving and precision surgery.

“Using AI in controlling nuclear reactors is a wonderful thing or controlling power plant is an excellent thing, right? So there are areas where human beings can use AI to reduce the resolution time for reaction and make those systems perform better. And surgery, for example, precision surgery. AI is very, very useful in precision surgery, robotics is very useful,” Murthy said, adding there are several challenges ahead as well.

“As long as, as I pointed out earlier, we ensure that these technologies don't fall into the hands of the evil people. That's it. But that same thing gun, the moment an evil person has the gun, we have seen what has happened, right in the US,” he said in his final comments on the matter.

Murthy's comments are in line with the views of many other experts, who believe that AI is more likely to create jobs than destroy them. A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that AI could create up to 950 million new jobs by 2030, while only automating up to 800 million jobs.

However, some experts are more cautious about the impact of AI on jobs. They argue that AI is already automating many low-skilled jobs, and that this trend is likely to continue. They also warn that AI could exacerbate income inequality, as it is likely to benefit high-skilled workers more than low-skilled workers.

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