Name: AI chatbots are playing God in India
Uploaded: 2023-07-05T16:44:36.068Z
Duration: 4 min
Description: Several GitaGPT chatbots that use generative AI to offer spiritual guidance have sprung up in India, but experts say the new technology has the power to veer off script and into dangerous territory, condoning violence.

Several GitaGPT chatbots that use generative AI to offer spiritual guidance have sprung up in India, but experts say the new technology has the power to veer off script and into dangerous territory, condoning violence.

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Rise of AI

AI chatbots are playing God in India

It's a morning ritual steeped in devotion. Pooja, meaning reverence in Sanskrit, performed daily at this shrine set up at home. Vandana Poddar prays following the guide to a more spiritual life laid out in the Bhagavad Gita. The 700 verse scripture sacred to Hindus. A religious text that's now being interpreted freely online by chatbots playing God. A handful of Gita GPTs using generative artificial intelligence have sprung up in India. Fielding spiritual questions from hundreds of thousands of online users with answers based on the Bhagavad Gita. What troubles you my child, this chatbot asks off the bat. Imitating the tone of the Hindu god Krishna. Another calls itself a repository of knowledge and wisdom. It's new technology with the power to veer off script, experts say, into dangerous territory condoning violence. Several of the bots consistently provide the answer that it's okay to kill someone if it's your dharma or duty. It's miscommunication, misinformation based on religious texts. And it's flirting with disaster this AI and legal expert says. And what does a bot do? It gives you a literal answer. And that is the danger over here. She says that potential danger is more acute in a country like India where religion is so central and often emotional. Where communal violence flares up at times with deadly consequences. Who is affected? A poor shopkeeper somewhere. His shop will be burnt. And there's going to be more violence. Because something somewhere a chatbot wrote something somebody put it on WhatsApp and then they forwarded it. So the effect is so huge and irreversible that the damage cannot really be controlled. So AI is still not there yet where it can be totally trusted. This young tech entrepreneur who created one of the religious chatbots acknowledges there are issues. But Samanyu Garg insists he's doing all he can. So that is where we have given a disclaimer that, you know, even though this is probably right, but use your own, you know, thinking and use your own kind of judgment to... Not only disclaimers but also filters that keep updating the statistics the AI model is based on. But we are actively kind of working on detecting any toxicity-based responses blocking any bad kind of questions people are asking. And then we keep on retraining. We filter out the bad responses. We keep on training the model to be able to detect these newer toxicity questions. He believes the pitfalls are outweighed by a key benefit getting young people interested in an ancient religious text. But at this weekly class to study the Bhagavad Gita's meaning the idea of outsourcing spirituality to machines is highly distasteful especially for the guru leading the session. It's always better that human touch. It is always there. It's a spiritual thing. AI can never replace spirit. It is only replacing our intelligence. The beauty of learning from debate with others is being lost he says even as the online religious bots are proliferating with little control. Salima, you mentioned the lack of control over these religious chatbots. What's the stance of the Indian government? Well, it's a question so many governments are struggling with. Indian officials informed Parliament earlier this year that the government does not intend to draft a law to regulate the growth of artificial intelligence in the country. Even though the minister responsible does say that there are ethical concerns and risks. So saying no to regulation goes against what some other jurisdictions are doing. The EU for example has a proposed AI act and the United States is looking at drafting and working on an AI Bill of Rights. Salima Shibji reporting from Mumbai.

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