Can the Mahabharata teach us how to manage Artificial Intelligence?
With AI shaping the future of humanity, lessons from Mahabharata can potentially provide philosophy that would make sure that AI is a boon and not a bane.
There are many lessons to be learnt from the ideology of our Sanskrit epics, say scholars. The contribution of the Bhagavad Gita to management principles is well-documented today. Now, there is a train of thought that believes the Mahabharata can teach us how to manage machine autonomy and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
While experts believe that AI will improve human effectiveness, capacities, and open a world of vast opportunities, it also presents us with unprecedented threats. So how does the Mahabharata help us in this context?
MAHABHARATA DICE GAME EPISODE AND QUESTIONS POSED
As an example, let us look at the dice game that was played between the Pandavas and Kauravas. Shakuni (Duryodhana’s uncle), a master player, threw the dice for Duryodhana (Kauravas), while Yudhisthira represented the Pandavas. Yudhisthira had a penchant for gambling and the dice game that day, which initially started with small bets on jewellery and land, led to Yudhisthira eventually losing all his precious possessions, including his kingdom and brothers. He finally bet his wife, Draupadi, as well and lost her in the game. From kings, the Pandavas ended up becoming slaves, and Duryodhana was elated with the revenge he got on the Pandavas and Draupadi.
After the game, a furious Draupadi posed several questions before her husband and the Kuru elders. She asked if Yudhisthira had lost himself first and became a slave. In that case, a slave was not a free person and could not own anything. So how could someone put her at stake in a gamble when he was neither free nor had the right to own anything? Draupadi stated it was a transgression of dharma, unlawful and incorrect.
Bhisma Pitamah, the legal expert, replied that it depends, since a wife was the husband’s property and therefore, she could be staked.
Draupadi’s questions go unanswered and, as we know, the game of dice had been rigged by the Kauravas.
This entire episode brought to the forefront pertinent ethical, legal and administrative challenges. And this is the connection between AI and the Mahabharata – there are ethical, legal and administrative issues in AI today. Can AI be allowed to make life and death decisions? Will AI make the right life and death decisions? Can it be allowed to function autonomously without human intervention at any level?
CAN LESSONS FROM MAHABHARATA BE USED TO MANAGE AI?
When asked about some of the ways in which humans can manage AI using lessons from the Mahabharata, Professor V Srivatsan from the Stern School of Business (NYU) said, “One of the main challenges in managing AI is that we - mankind - currently lack a unified philosophical approach in sharing our thinking. This necessary perspective needs to have some seemingly contradictory characteristics: a) philosophically rigorous thinking; b) a relatively easy way to communicate it to the higher educated worldwide; and c) insights into how to modify it for a wide variety of national and sectoral contexts. The Mahabharata is an outstanding vehicle to accomplish all the above.”
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When asked about how much autonomy we can give AI, Professor Srivatsan replied, “Before we collectively decide how much autonomy we grant AI - it’ll vary depending upon the domain - we need to educate ourselves deeply about what it means to be human. As Alexander Pope pointed out, ‘The proper study of mankind is Man’. The best way - STILL - for us to study mankind is through great literature; the greatest thoughts of the greatest minds.”
“The Mahabharata- which embodies the collective learning of the planet’s only continuously surviving Neolithic civilization- meets that criterion; not least because it has more than two dozen individuals with details on their background, idiosyncrasies and inner character development,” Professor Srivastan added.
Immersing ourselves in the study of the humanities (and possibly the Mahabharata) is the best way to prepare for the emerging AI world, state some experts.
Recently, David Brooks wrote an article for the New York Times about how we need to learn how to be human in the age of AI. He wrote, “AI will probably give us fantastic tools that will help us outsource a lot of our current mental work. At the same time, AI will force us humans to double down on those talents and skills that only humans possess. The most important thing about AI may be that it shows us what it can’t do, and so reveals who we are and what we have to offer.”
He listed distinct human skills, like a personal voice, presentation skills, a childlike talent for creativity, unusual worldviews, empathy and situational awareness, which cannot be replicated by AI.
An example of machine autonomy or intelligence existed at the time of the Mahabharata in the form of Krishna’s Sudarshana Chakra, which could track its target, destroy it, and return to its owner. But Krishna, being a God, used his weapon wisely according to the rules of war. Could we say the same about AI and its use in warfare today?
Wars have been shaped by technology and now the challenge with the use of AI in warfare is on what basis would it deploy the weapon and, more importantly, should humans even allow this possibility?
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Former US Secretary of State Henry A Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher, wrote a book ‘The Age of AI: And Our Human Future’. In an interview with Time magazine in 2021, Henry Kissinger spoke about the good and bad side of AI. Henry Kissinger said, “Up to now, humanity assumed that its technological progress was beneficial or manageable. We are saying that it can be hugely beneficial. It may be manageable, but there are aspects to the managing part of it that we haven’t studied at all or sufficiently. I remain worried. I’m opposed to saying we therefore have to eliminate it. It’s there now. One of the major points is that we think there should be created some philosophy to guide the research.”
Co-author Eric Schmidt asserted that a philosophical framework, a set of understandings of where the limits of this technology should go, should be built by scientists and those who frame policy. Dr Kissinger aptly said, “It may be the nature of the human destiny and human tragedy that they have been given the gift to invent things. But the punishment may be that they have to find the solutions themselves.”
With AI shaping the future of humanity, it is now up to humans to develop the philosophy on which AI would function so that it’s not a threat but a boon for us. And it is this precise philosophy which the Mahabharata potentially provides, believe some scholars.
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