The opinion piece titled “Will there be Ao Nagas in 2099?” written by Sentilong Ozukum and published in this newspaper on Sunday attracted a lot of interest from a lot of readers. The article was widely shared, especially through WhatsApp, with almost all readers agreeing with the writer that the question needs urgent attention. Apart from the dropping fertility rate among the Ao Nagas, as pointed out by the writer in his opinion piece, there are also other factors that could possibly determine if there will indeed be Ao Nagas walking the face of the earth in 2099 – that is, 76 years later. Most of the people reading this column, if not all, will be long gone by the year 2099.
Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm. AI is truly the new frontier in human civilization. Imagine our lives before there was telephony or pocket internet – which was just decades ago – and imagine our lives without them today. Just like the invention of the steam engine or the printing press changed human civilization forever, or just like the internet changed our lives, AI is going to affect our lives more than we can conceive at the moment. AI has been around for some time but with the recent launch of ChatGPT, things have become a little inconvenient. Since its release in November of last year by OpenAI, tech companies are competing to release their own AI chatpots led by Google releasing Bard. Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Baidu and SenseTime are all rolling out their own AI chatbots to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. More will come without a doubt.
ChatGPT’s runaway success has sparked intense scrutiny of AI technology in recent months. The chatbot has wowed users with its lifelike responses to user prompts – stoking optimism about the technology’s benefits, as well as concerns about its potential to cause harm. There is no law to regulate AI in India or any country in the world per se. While many top leaders in the tech industry including Elon Musk, Zoho chief Sridhar Vembu and more have raised concerns and called for an immediate need for regulations for AI, India’s IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has informed the parliament recently that they are not planning to regulate the growth or set any laws for AI in the country. Not as of now. Vaishnaw acknowledged that there are ethical concerns and risks around AI and the government has already started making efforts to standardize responsible AI. However, he said the government is not considering bringing a law or regulating the growth of artificial intelligence in the country.
As humans enter the uncharted territories of AI, we asked ChatGPT the exact question – Will there be Ao Nagas in 2099? The answer we got was intriguing. “The presence of any specific ethnic or cultural group, such as the Ao Nagas, in the year 2099 would depend on various factors such as societal changes, demographic shifts, political developments, and cultural dynamics, which are complex and subject to multiple influences,” it said. “The Ao Nagas, like many other indigenous tribes around the world, face various challenges such as modernization, globalization, cultural assimilation, and changes in traditional ways of life. These factors can impact the continuity and preservation of their cultural heritage and way of life,” it observed. “It is important to note that the future is uncertain and can be influenced by a wide range of factors. While the Ao Nagas have a rich cultural heritage and have shown resilience in the past, whether they will continue to exist as a distinct group in the year 2099 would depend on numerous variables and is difficult to predict with certainty,” it concluded.
We hope to be around in 2099 and beyond as a distinct people, and we also hope AI does not destroy humanity. “Will there be Ao Nagas in 2099?” is a pertinent question. “Will AI rule the world by 2099?” is just as pertinent too.
