“Artificial intelligence. Are you scared of it?” I asked Lulu, my parrot. Just in case you are not aware, parrots are one of the most well informed avians. They travel from Stanford to Shillong; they understand AI, I mean, Artificial Intelligence.

“Why should I? I am more scared of natural human intelligence. It is dangerous enough.” Lulu never leaves opportunity to snub; it is like Nirmala Sitharaman answering Pakistan’s allegations.

“You must not be serious. Did you not watch his video? Elon Musk said that artificial intelligence is dangerous.”

“Well, there are views and views. There are some who think human intelligence is unbeatable.”

“It is under threat certain.”

My assertive tone did not persuade Lulu to see things my way. “Take Nirav Modi. See how he tinkered with banking system for personal gain.” Lulu looked at me like Dhoni glancing at bowler after clinching victory with a sixer.

“I see your point. He was at it for years together.”

“Or for that matter, take the case of Vijay Mallya. Everybody knew he was going to dupe the banks. Written on the wall. Nobody spoke. He slipped out of the country quietly.”

“Yes. And we have Rotomac owner in jail now. Human intelligence beats all in corrupting the system.”

“Modi and Mallya have made tonnes of money with their intelligence. They must be brought to book. We must see them languishing in the jail. Like Sahara Shree!” Lulu nibbled at chillies.

“Sahara Shree was obviously did not learn from his friends. That’s a different story. With Artificial Intelligence there is a big issue. When it works for the likes of Mallya and Nirav Modi who will you book for the crime? The wrong-doer or his robot?”

“That issue is settled already. Like in Nirav Modi’s case, it his robot – Gokulnath Shetty, the DGM of PNB! Shetty obeyed all orders, huh! Homo sapiens have always known how to create robots and make them work. Human intelligence is unbeatable!!” Lulu hopped on the keyboard of my laptop to open the Google News.

Vivek S Patwardhan