At intervals of a few decades, the world witnessses a technological wave. When such a wave comes, a few come out to praise it handsomely. The rest are worried about what the whole thing is. Later, the wave gathers force. Thinkers in the society get worried about its impact. Some time later, the benefits are seen. We try to adapt to the changes to avail of the benefits.

The first such wave was the Industrial Revolution at Manchester, England. It was in the 1750s. Its effects were felt by world for the next 100 years. It brought about the machine age for spinning and weaving of cotton fibre and cloth. This was far speedier than the manual spinning and weaving by human beings. The machines were powered by steam engine. It was hailed as a ‘revolution’. Karl Marx and Engels, the two German visitors thought this was the worst thing that happened to the mankind. They organised a movement against it called communism which has still survived.

Industrial Revolution made cotton affordable to all and sundry, and not for only the nobles. In fact, Gandhi’s freedom movement to evict the British is rooted in this revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was followed by chemical (industrial) revolution. First substance that fascinated us was synthetic indigo blue. Later, we were fascinated by the clothes dyed in attractive colours. Later chemistry was used to produce synthetic fibres such as nylon and polyester. It made clothing attractive, affordable and crease-free.

In Bombay, there were some 80 cotton textile mills. Their cotton became unmarketable. It became difficult to pay wages to the workers. They went on a strike. Ultimately, it resulted into the closure of the textile mills, and rendered their 1.5 lac workers jobless. Mill closure can be attributed to chemical revolution, and not to labour movement as some do it.

With ChatGPT which appeared in November 2022, we are witnessing an Artificial Intelligence wave. President Biden has signed an executive order in November 2023 to regulate it. PM Sunak held an AI Summit at UK’s Buckinghamshire. Even godfathers of AI such as Geoffrey Hinton alert us about the risks of AI. AI could be weaponized in the wrong hands. There are issues of fake news and fake images. We have to think about both the oppportunities and threats. Ai is capable of rendering professional services at a fraction of a cost. The earnings and numbers of professionals is likely to shrink. The job markets will have both positive and negative effects.

We should adopt rational policies to deal with AI revolution.