Among the many upheavals concurrently occurring on Earth is that artificial intelligence (AI) is allegedly rewriting the future of work. Will we be contending with the terrifying new reality that computer systems will take over coveted careers in software engineering, leaving the brightest students twiddling their thumbs? Or, is the buzz around AI merely a convenient justification for layoffs? The answer, most likely, lies somewhere in between — AI use is increasing, but a Terminator-like situation where machines are in charge is still really far away.

On the bright side, as AI threatens to make the value of technical skills questionable, it’s a shot at freedom for all those reluctantly aspiring engineers forced into IIT tuition factories in Kota, often driven to suicide by ambitious and clueless parents. In India at least, we’ve been a brutally optimisation oriented society — getting the best ROI means studying specifically those subjects which improves one’s financial prospects. That’s life. An........

© Indian Express