Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 10. 9. 23
Intersection of
AI and journalism
Technology has
always been a disruptor of the status-quo and creator of new paradigms. A
humble wheel and plough kick-started agriculture and civilization took
baby-steps. Compass made navigation easier and that helped in exploration and
discovery of new lands. Invention of the steam engine changed the way we used
to commute. Electricity made living easier. Modern medicines, antibiotics,
vaccines saved millions of lives. Telephone, Telegraph, Radio and Television
changed the way we used to communicate. The Internet and Mobile Phone
impacted the form and speed of communication like never before. It impacted
several areas. From trade, business to banking, from education to health
services, from governance to collaborative trans-national research- almost
every area was impacted. The latest entrant in the long list of
disruptive technologies is Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is changing the
prevalent practices of many areas including media ecology with great speed. New
forms of journalism are emerging. New questions related to journalistic ethics
are emerging in the light of intersection of AI and journalism. As it happens
whenever a new disruptive technology emerges- many of us are overwhelmed. Some
see the new technology as a ‘destroyer’; equal numbers see the opposite. They
view the new technology as the ‘creator of a new world’. The truth probably
lies somewhere in between and in our capacity and willingness to adopt it and
adapt to its requirements.
Grass as the
harbinger of autumn and Puja season
As the milky
white flowers of ‘Kash’ (Kashtandi in Odia, Kahuwa in Assamese, Saccharum spontaneum) bloom near
water bodies, river banks- you feel the soft footsteps of Autumn. It heralds
the Puja season in the entire Eastern India- beginning with Ganesh Puja,
climaxing with Durga Puja and ending with Saraswati Puja.
Kash occupies an
important space in the cultural-visual landscape of Bengal and Odisha. In many
Bengali and Odia films, swathes of Kash flower have been shown as a symbol.
Remember the scene in Satyajit Ray’s magnum opus ‘Pather Panchali’, where Apu
and Durga run out into a sea of kash flower as the train approaches. Recently I
came across a beautiful graphic on Raksha-bandhan, which had all these
elements.
Kash, by the way,
is a grass native to the Indian subcontinent, which can grow up to three
meters.
A Teacher’s Pleasure
I am writing this
on 5 September, Teachers Day as I am receiving messages from my former students.
I have been a teacher for over 23 years.
It feels great to
suddenly meet an old student after long years. The pleasure doubles when you
meet his/her kids.
It was a pleasant
surprise as Madhavika, my student at IIMC, Dhenkanal in 2005-6 came to meet me
in a moving train. ‘I saw you getting in’, she said, ‘Sir, my daughters are
interested to meet you’. We are sitting in the next compartment.
Little while
after, she comes with her two pretty daughters, the eldest of 10 years and
studying in class V and the youngest 5 years, studying in class I. They were
wearing identical frocks. We had a lively chat. I knew that they were enjoying
their school life in Bhubaneswar even better than the USA, from where they
joined only six months ago. They were particularly amazed to learn that ‘Mummy
ki vi teacher ho sakta hai.’
Want to buy a
plot on the Moon?
After Chandrayaan
3 landed on the moon, jokes are doing rounds that builders are advertising for
‘earth facing’ 3/4 bedroom flats on moon.
But a quick
google search showed that there is actually an organisation which has been
selling land on the moon since 1998. The legal standing of the organisation is
unclear. But there are people with surplus money who are buying/gifting land on
the moon. Check out this website: lunarregistry.com
But be very
careful before you shell out your hard earned money.
Truth- on a
banyan
Once in a while you find profound
truth at the most unlikely place. I found this - printed on a round neck
banyan. It reads: ‘Nirlajyam Sada Sukhi’. Shameless is always happy. Look
around, you’ll realize how true it is.
Tail-piece:
Natural Disasters
Overheard at a tea stall:
No one teaches a Volcano
how to Erupt....
No one teaches a Tsunami
how to Rise...
No one teaches a
Hurricane how to Sway...
No one teaches a MAN how
to choose a "WIFE"......
Natural Disasters Just
Happen !!
++
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