The Talking Dog and the Intelligent Parrot

As a child, I heard several Arabian and Indian fables — especially those of Aesop and Vikramaditya — in which dogs, cats, lions and parrots talk just like human beings. I believed them to be reality.

From Belief to Rejection

But when I grew up, I rejected them as mere illusions for children, during the age of the IT Revolution that translated everything into zeros and ones — what we called digitalization. IT could reduce dogs, parrots and human beings alike into digital format, to be dealt with through algorithms and architecture.

With advanced statistical probability and amazing computing speed and power, Artificial Intelligence emerged as a sophisticated retrieval system, drawing on what is fed into data centres through underwater cables and satellites. AI could automate everything and design robotics to the extent of humanoids or animaloids — machines that look like real animals, human beings or fairies, able to walk, talk and do many things. Now we have intelligent, talking robotic dogs and parrots.

The Rebirth of the Fable

The ancient Indian and Arabian fables have become a reality in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

This has also helped the rebirth of the fable for the AI era — a way to explain complex concepts in Artificial Intelligence and the Post-AI world. These include the nature and structure of data as well as knowledge, Knowmatics, the Knowledge Industry and the Knowledge Industrial Revolution, and a ten-fold human advancement ensuring equity, dignity and freedom for all.

Fables for the AI Era are capturing the imaginations not only of children and youth, but also of AI experts, technocrats and the leaders of major AI enterprises — both the well established and the startups.

If the machine can talk like the parrot, what is left that is uniquely human?