Review of book Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Powers, by Shri Rajiv Malhotra.

New Delhi: By Rudra Dubey, PhD, MBA (Connecticut, USA): The seminal book, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Powers, by Shri Rajiv Malhotra is an elegant piece that is deep researched, fact fostered, rationale reinforced and though-provoking. For promises intertwined with challenges, it is a vital and challenging book about one of the most significant aspect of humanity today i.e Artificial Intelligence (AI). This books flares interest as the author views of many leading authors in the fields of artificial intelligence, data analysis and futurology. Most impactful of all, it relates AI to all key aspect of humanity, future of power driven partly by progressive fever and partly by aspiration of world domination, soft and hard power, extremes of power centers, the beneficiaries and the exploiters of powers, revisitation of colonization, perpetually empowered vs self-dissipating power, and misalignment of power hard-wire: self-agency-universe.

AI is one of the most rapidly advancing and controversial topics in scientific research.The number of journal and conference papers referring to AI in the Dimensions from Digital Science database increased by more than 600% between 2000 and 2019.

As world is all geared up and making strides with AI and AI has becomes ubiquitous in fields such as medicine, education, and security, it is important to take a pause and give a conscious consideration tosignificant ethical and technical challenges and come up with preemptive measures rather than reactive to overcome them upfront.Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen major advances in recent years. While machines were always central to the Marxist analysis of capitalism, AI is a new kind of machine that Marx could not have anticipated. Contemporary machine-learning AI allows machines to increasingly approach human capacities for perception and reasoning in narrow domains.For humanity, the idea of AI systems to make it so advanced that AI can mimic or outperform human cognition. Though there are views, and it is leaning towards one that reaching to human cognitive ability appears impossible, the very idea is ominous, especially with the fact that control of AI could fall in ill-intentioned ones and rest of the humanity may suffer.

The digital world is going through a revolution of which India has been the biggest beneficiary so far, now that AI is at the center stage and impacting human and humanity, it is everyone’s guess that India is going to be affected by AI innovations significantly.

The book delves deep into one of the most burning issue of India i.e. Unemployment and it elaborated extensively about inequalities andsocial disruptions that potentially AI can bring. Though there are unfounded optimism about AI, at least in those who are in the business of creating and selling IT laborer make money off the cost-arbitrage, but disparity across the nation the AI can create would rupture that bubbleinstantly and drastically.

We also get a flavor in the line of the relationship between Marxist theory and AI through the lenses of different theoretical concepts, including surplus-value, labor, the general conditions of production, class composition and surplus population. We then brought to the turf where rationality plays against left accelerationism, asserting that a deeper analysis of impact AI on socio-economic fabric is critical as it perhaps paints a more complex and disturbing picture of capitalism’s future than has previously been identified. Based on the concept of n Power and also on the current trajectory, AI represents an ultimate weapon for capital. It will render humanity obsolete or turn it into a species of trans-humans working for a wage until the heat death of the universe; a fate that is only avoidable by communist revolution.

An excellent account is provided about the disruption of world order, digital colonization. China’s Catapulting itself for domination. Almost one-third of those papers date from 2017 to 2019. from 2016 to 2019, China (over 120%) produced more AI-related papers than any other nation, according to Dimensions.And domination on hardware of China is so strong that even US can’t compete.

China and US have systematic plan, and they are pursuing their quest for domination very aggressively, while India once a leader in IT, at least by chance, is in complacency of service revenue. US’s aspiration shave one component i.e it is cautious of China’s growth and US is aggressively building strategies and counteract measures. Recognizing the strategic importance of AI to the Nation’s future economy and security, the Trump Administration established the American AI Initiative via an Executive Order in February 2019, and swiftly all those efforts were codified into law as part of the National AI Initiative Act of 2020.

Shri Rajiv Malhotra has published many outstanding books giving deep insights into the vedic concept and elucidating self, agency, and order of universe order. In this book he relates impact of AI with these deep esoteric concepts of the ultimate reality. Bhartvarsh has unique knowledge advantage which can make Bharatvarsh a Vishvaguru. No one in the world has given such exclusive insights that can attract discourse of spiritual gurus and practitioners.

Book’s account on emotional hijacking is one of the most intimidating impact of AI and it is ominous for the nation. The mass indulging into and getting in a vicious web of PleasureàGratificationàAddictionàSlavery is one of the biggest concerns, dangerous than Chinese getting into opium addiction.

When we see misinformed mass, too much dependent on social media for their intellectual fortification, we witness moronization, and it is well described with all warning of consequences. Most importantly, the aesthetics that potentially is acting as opium of masses and drastically taking away pragmatism from their cognition. Book gives a heads up that it is expected the AI may cause denigration of humanism by creating ‘Happy Morons’. The mass may drift from the deeper Vediclearning such as ‘Brahman cannot be known by empirical means, as an object within our consciousness because Brahman is our very consciousness.’ Book also highlights about Returns of God. These days the social media platforms have gained so much of clout and power that uses have started to treat them as ‘Devtas’, and it’s nothing but sign of fall of humanity.

Book elucidates a particularly important aspect of India, Rashtra. This part of insight hinges on incoherant image of nation, its heritages, soft power, hard power, society, and population load. Of all, most critical one it elaborates on is “Breaking India Forces”. India has been bleeded by thousand cuts given by these BI forces and recently country was attacked quite overtly using “Tool Kit”. Never in history of independent India, desecration of national flag at Lal Kila happened, as it was perpetrated by BI forces in 2020.

China threat is the biggest threat for India, be it on ground, in air, ocean, space or cyberspace. Book describes well as how AI empowered various forces, including captive allies, can unleash formidable assault on India and dismantle its growth engine and destroys its aspiration to become leader in south asea.

Book does a great favor by providing a detailed account on where India stands to counter any such forces, including the one that eminently can recolonize India. In terms of AI readiness involving Advance algorithm/Harware/Cloud/Energy/Data/Innovation Ecosystem/financial strength, the most India has is some profit-making outfits busy exporting cheap labor and as needed import expensive IP and products. This is completely self-defeating proposition.

Book provides many constructive and systematic strategic recommendations which may significantly aid to the ongoing activities, which by are pretty scattered, directionless and inadequate. To name some initiatives of india are, National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, national artificial intelligence centre, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in collaboration with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). The National AI Portal INDIAaito build India’s most comprehensive AI ecosystem. It is still an open question whether this can get “AIfor All”?

The current directions taken by India can well be questioned if they are misdirection’s:

• India, despite its vast and diverse data sets — a prerequisite for robust AI systems — is not part of many mainstream discussions and deliberations on AI.
• In the Global AI Council, set up by the World Economic Forum, was announced, and will be cochaired by Microsoft President Brad Smith and Kai-Fu Lee, chief executive officer of Sinovation Ventures and a former president of Google China.
• The members of the Global AI Council include Element AI, IEEE, IBM, Future of Life Institute, and ministers from the UK, Colombia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to VentureBeat.
• This situation is similar across several other ongoing deliberations on setting standards for AI, where India has little to no representation.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to establish a Quantum Computing Applications Lab in the country, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is expected to accelerate quantum computing-led research. AWS is expected to provide hosting services with technical and programmatic support.
• The MeitY Quantum Computing Applications Lab will provide quantum computing to manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and aerospace engineering.
• Arvind Krishna, the CEO of IBM, (in RAISE 2020), announced the setting up of the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence in partnership with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
• ME IT and Intel India to launch a national program for the youth.
• Eric Schmidt, chairman told US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has proposed a US-India strategic technology alliance for developing a technology strategy and research on emerging technologies in the field of defence, security.

Book emphasized importance of having India’s own setup and not just copy-paste of mindlessly adopt it from products or framework of US/China.

Book provides us a sense that unlike endemic such as dengue or malaria where only develop and dispense therapies internally to contain and combat disease, AI issue is akin to a Pandemic. First, country must seal its borders to contain invasion from external sources, then country has to deal with R0 to contain spread of disease inside the country, and lastly country has to go through a devastating fight to reduce suffering, increase survival, and surmounting the aftermath.

If I have to choose from many great insights that this outstanding book provided, I willchoose the aspect where it delved into one of the most intriguing concepts: Algorithm vs Being!AI can tilt the balance of SelfBrahm vs Materialism in the disfavor of humanity.

“Sarvam hi etad brahma ayamātmābrahmsahayamātmāchatuspaat”(The IshaUpaniṣad).

The Supreme Brahman is infinite, and this conditioned Brahman is infinite. The infinite proceeds from infinite. If you subtract the infinite from the infinite, the infinite remains alone.