Dr John Mohan Razu
We live in a world of inventions particularly in the areas of technology and its know-howtransfers. Every day we read or hear how technology keep changing the diverse facets of our life. We observe its influence right across from micro-to-macro vis-à-vis local to global levels. As years pass-by, its growth has been stupendous and thus raising several questions. Though there have been many positives that the AI offers, there are some who points out to existential threat to humanity. Nonetheless AI has garnered substantive and huge influence and thus wielded phenomenal clout amongst global AI players andworld leaders.
AI is in our midst and has permeated into all spheres of human activities. Its significance and presence will increasingly be engulfed by AI as we move on in the coming years. During the fag end of 2024 there was an AI safety summit and a week ago in the mid-February 2025 a summit on action that concerned AI. The discussions revolved around regulating AI and deter its possible control that undermines humanity. Those who are concerned about humanity and its future would enter into collaborative arrangements to fight against those forces that undermines humanity as its future point out the role and significance.
By and large, AI represents soft and hard power, having formative potential capacity to unleash.There are growing number of people who show their skepticism against Generative—AI as it would deter the future of humanity like jobs and in other sensitive areas as well. On this an interesting piece by Jug Suralya titled Jevons Paradox of Love and Hate appeared in TOI recently commenting on the exponential ramifications for the AI industry following the Chinese technological breakthrough by creating the advanced language model of DeepSeek, that too at a fraction of the cost of its competitors, such as CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella invoked the specter of the Jevons Paradox.
Detailing on Jevons Paradox he explains: “Formulated 160 years ago by the British economist William Stanley Jevons, the counter-intuitive paradox shows that technological advancement in the use of any given resource leads to an increasing, and not a decreasing, use of that resource.” In the case of AI more and more areas have been exploited within which AI could perhaps be use. The proponents of AI see AI is the best resource and be exploited at the optimal levels. Offering an example, “Jevons based his theory on how the better utlisation of coal during Britain’s Industrial Revolution through the invention of the steam engine led to a greater demand for coal, and increased instead of lowering its consumption.”
Continuing further, “Similarly, the construction of more roads and highways to cut down on driving time can have the unintended consequence of increasing the volume of vehicles, leading to congestion, delays and traffic jams. More efficient electrical system led to a greater demand for electricity and therefore increased consumption of power.” On this Nadella “expressed the apprehension that the advent of DeekSeek could augur an uncontrolled and uncontrollable proliferation of AI usage, both for benefic purposes such as medical research, and for the malefic creation of deepfakes and propagandist misinformation.” This is crux that enjoins both the DeepSeek and DeepFake that we confront.
Rasing some serious questions such as “Can the equivalent of the Jevons Paradox obtain in the non-material realm of the psyche? Can it work in the realm of the antipodes of love and hate?” He brings to the fore a few historical conjectures that “Time and time again, history has shown that given a conducive environment which promotes it, the destructive energy of hatred thrives and feed on itself to grow to monstrous proportions, as witnessed in Nazi Germany, in the Red Terror of the Stalinist purges, in the McCarthy witch-hunts in America, and in the ongoing and escalating Israel-Palestinian conflict.” AI is not an exception that enjoins all these features.
AI has been used and could be used to a larger extentinvolved in spreading the visuals and narratives that are used for divisive and hate-spreading purposes. For example, Jay Suraiya pushes this factor that “Collective hate, the systemic ‘otherisation’ of those who belong to a different country, religion, or ideology, is indeed a self-generating, constantly renewable resource, with universally tragic consequences.” He brings just the opposite to the previous construct by raising a question that “Can the same claim be made for hate’s composite polar opposite of love and compassion, a combined resource of the spirit that our environmentally endangered and strife-ridden planet so desperately needs?”
As homo sapiens keep advancing in our endeavors and innovations will have to move for authentic humanity. It is predicted that in the coming years AI would increasingly be used to divide the society on race, creed, caste, and gender basis. More importantly it would increasingly be engaged in pushing hatred within and between communities. Hence, he argues that “By its nature hate divides; by its essence compassion, manifested through empathy unites. Even as the hate-driven wars of antagonism divide, the empathy-inspired crusades against hunger and poverty, and against environmental degradation, unify through commonality of purpose.” Those who argue for AI by dismissing the other side of AI should think of unifying and bring about empathy and love within humanity.
Substantiating further, he reiterates that “The resource of divisive hate is created and propagated by rabble-rousing demagogues and dictators. The resource of unifying compassion is generated and fostered by scientists seeking cures for disease, by philosophers and ethicists in search of universal verities that sustain all humanity, by poets and artists who help us to see the familiar world with the startling newness of unfamiliar vision.” Instead of pushing for such noble values, moral principles, and unity of humanity and other species, It is predicted that AI in the coming days would be used more for destructive and catastrophic purposes.
AI is a tool and if the tool is in the hands of responsible leaders, then it would lead to constructive purposes. If AI falls into the hands of tyrants and dictators then one can expect the outcome. Therefore, in his closing proposition Jug Suralya recalling the history “As in the case of 19th century coal or 21st century AI, the timeless human resources of hate and compassion are subject to the Jevons Paradox; the more they are used, the greater is the demand for them. While hate perpetuates a vicious circle and anti-revolutionary descent, compassion creates a virtuous spiral of ascent. And AI is the new, perhaps ultimate, frontier where the two age-old and highly resourceful adversaries will contend to define what it is to be human.”
As said by Jug Suralya, it is being human and remaining human have been dictum of the Homo sapiens. In between we have witnessed and witnessing some leaders and individuals using adversely for power and money. Any tool or innovation that undermines humanity and the essence of being human should be countered with moral and regulatory yardsticks. AI is in our midst posing lots of challenges and opportunities. It is indeed a powerful tool or even I would say a weapon that generates money and power whoever is in control. And yet, it is the people who have decided and decide what is good for them.
