Tech like artificial intelligence may spell disaster if not used judiciously: Mitra

Kolkata: State Finance, Industry and Information Technology (IT) minister Amit Mitra on Thursday expressed his concern about the detrimental effects of the next age of digital technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics and cautioned that it should be put into use judiciously.

"Artificial super intelligence is empowered to understand human thoughts and affect human behaviour, which may lead to a disaster. So we have to use the technology in a careful manner and in a way that will be beneficial for the common people," Mitra said at the inaugural session of Infocom 2018.

It may be mentioned that the Bengal government has been holding knowledge workshops every month on emerging technologies, to ensure that digital technology is not adopted in an indiscriminate fashion. The two-day Blockchain Congress scheduled on December 18 and 19 at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in New Town will see experts from different parts of the country disseminate knowledge about blockchain.

Mitra highlighted the achievements of Bengal in e-taxation, complete e-treasury, e-districts in which 85 government-to-citizen services had been included in 21 districts and e-office for the government's speedy clearances of files.

Bangladesh IT minister Mustafa Jabbar also emphasised on the need to 'regulate' AI and robotics research that may invite ill omen for mankind. It may be achieved by check and balance, he said.

He highlighted Bangladesh's digital journey and said that the country has been able to deliver 300 services on a digital platform.

Some other speakers also endorsed the views of Mitra and shared their apprehensions about rapid digitalisation deeply impacting B2C relationships. "Self-service, automation and robots would dominate the customer relations in the future and the time is fast approaching when computers will dominate our lives, making human interactions rare," said a number of experts in IT who attended the event.