"This feels good. I'm loving this. I Love everyone and everything in this dream." Just as Jay was having his longest dream so far, he was interrupted by an uneasy feeling. There seemed to be something wrong. He slept for 14 hours. Usually Jay enjoys his dreams, but today was different. He realized something was not right. Unable to put his finger on it, Jay ruminated. Alas he figured it out. He knew exactly what went wrong. The problem with the dream was....
Let's Rewind five years. Jay joined a company as a sales person. A freshly minted business graduate, armed with all the cutting edge tools he picked up at his business school. Molded by mentors at work, Jay quickly mastered sales. He could always place his product, speak eloquently, understand the buyer's sentiment, and tailor killer sales pitches. He had been flown to resorts all over the world as the best salesman of the quarter. He was quick on his feet, figuratively in terms of addressing his buyer's concerns, and literally in terms of trotting the globe closing deals. He had one confusing concern of his own though, leaving him restless. He wished for a potion that could help him sleep to take his mind off of it. The prestigious resort getaways were days and nights of work served with a shot of sea, the sun and golden sands. Hardly any sleep and never any dreams.
Three years later, Jay's company introduced the sales chatbot - a virtual sales agent that would learn from Jay and his colleagues' emails and recordings of online meetings with customers. The sales bot would then conduct inside sales, answer basic questions and address buyer concerns. It lightened Jay’s workload. With the chatbot at his side, taking care of basic processes, Jay was able to sleep for longer hours. But alas! still no dreams. It was around this time that Jay met a ‘dream merchant’" who gave him a magic potion. "Be careful with this," the dream merchant warned , "This will make you sleep longer and give you blissful dreams that stick with you beyond fleeting impressions. Do not overdo it." Jay was stoked. He knew he had only six hours of sleep. He did not have the luxury to overdose himself. So he took the potion and it was magical! He had a wonderful dream that night. He dreamt of lovely landscapes, glistening turquoise blue oceans, wavy green fields, dense foliage, and many happy folks singing while they work. He saw himself as a happy farmer sharing bread with others, a nice little family, ample time to appreciate life's beauty- a resplendent life. Then the phone alarm went off, waking him up. This continued for the next three years. The sales bot got better at its work, slowly taking on more responsibilities. Now Jay had increasingly more time at home. He gradually increased the dosage and dreamt for longer hours. Six hours of sleep became ten, then twelve and more. He would quickly wrap up his part of the work, while the sales bot would take on the rest.
Today: a rude awakening. Jay felt fortunate and lucky with his dreams. He loved his life as a farmer in a beautiful land - land of abundance. He had everything and anything that one would dream about. However, today's dream left him with a void. It felt different. Something was amiss. He sees the all familiar skies and blissful glades, the family guffaws, but where am I? Why don't they see or hear me? His apprehension mounting. He just vanished. He is no longer in it! His euphoric dream had come to an abrupt end. His role in his dream has faded like moonlight into the darkness with every passing day. Jay was deeply upset. He quickly got up, rather he tried. His legs felt heavy, these long sleeping hours had made him less active in real life. After all, he was leading a smaller real life compared to his larger dream life. He felt hopeless. He was neither a part of his own dream nor was he feeling accomplished as he once did. It was growing difficult to stay awake and engage in his real life. He dragged himself to work. His day seemed ridden with disheartening news. He lost his job. His customers had built a buyer bot. The sales and buyer bots were more than capable of conducting business. They were almost sentient. Humans were incapable of participating in such transactions. He had no role at work. His position was eliminated.. from his job, his waking life, and from his dreams!
Is this the reality of today's world? With generative AI readily available, general AI not too far and robotics in advanced stages, did we create a dream world that is so efficient and sentient that we do not have a place in it? And will that dream make us incapable of participating in real life? Are we losing to machines and artificial intelligence in terms of skills, creativity and productivity? Do we want to partake all of that magic potion called AI? Or can we be more responsible about it? Time to govern AI, making its usage socially responsible perhaps? After all, the dream merchant did advise Jay, "Do not overdo it!".
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