Untangling Our World

  Picture yourself in the narrow, walled courtyards of 15th-century England - Vast skies, rolling hills, quaint villages, thatched cottages, castles, cathedrals, winding rivers, and ancient forests; mossy stones, tangled ivy on walls.  It is within these confinements that the roots of squash, the captivating racquet sport, first began to take shape. Players would strike a softball against the walls using their hands or primitive racquets, giving rise to the sport's name - "squash" - as the ball would "squash" against the walls. As time passed, squash evolved and became popular with the English elite. The start of modern-day squash was in the Harrow School in the early 19th century, where students adopted a small, hard rubber ball and refined the game into the recognizable form we know today. Standardized rules and scoring systems were established, establishing the basic foundation of the game we know today. The squash grew in popularity thanks to the British E...

  A few months ago, a program called Chat GPT was released and it was stunning. The program allowed one to have a real conversation with an AI program. Over the past few years, many AI-based programs have been released that have changed the way we live our life. If like me, you have been intrigued by what this fuss about generative AI models is all about, you might want to know more about it. I have been enjoying learning about various ways in which researchers are using AI models to solve real-world problems as a part of the AI Ambassador program organized by Inspirit AI , an organization with a mission to promote AI literacy for high school students. More on some of my experiences in another post. For now, I want to share an upcoming free event that highlights how anyone can learn and apply AI in meaningful real-life solving situations - see below for details: ChatGPT, Dall-E and the Future of AI - Free Symposium Event by Stanford Graduates Join our team of Stanford and MIT gra...

It’s hard to believe that since 2020, COVID-19 has so profoundly affected all our lives and still it is finding ways to redefine our lives in significant ways. At the beginning of the pandemic, life as we knew it was brought to a halt. There were daily reminders of the dangers illness posed to daily life. Confined to our houses and unable to see friends and family for extended periods of time, we were lonely . We all were. Loneliness has been a problem in many communities for a long time. The pandemic made it worse. As humans, we crave social interactions not just for socio-emotional reasons but it turns out our brains have evolved to seek safety in numbers and as a result, loneliness is registered as a threat, triggering the “fight or flight” response resulting in raised heart rate, increase in blood pressure and blood sugar levels, extra inflammatory response and often resulting in fewer antibodies to fight other infections such as those caused by viral or bacterial pathogens.  A...

  This week, I attended the Anthropology, AI and the future of Human Society Virtual Conference organized by the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and co-organized by The British Science Fiction Association (BFSA) and the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). The conference program set out to explore the implications and impact of the increasing role of AI, including but not limited to space exploration, autonomous driving, biotech, healthcare, and much more on the future of human society from a broad range of anthropological perspectives. The opening keynote: Anthropology and Emerging Technologies: Learning to Play in the Future Space , was delivered by Professor Sarah Pink, Director of Emerging Technology Research Lab at Monash University in Australia. Prof. Pink focused on exploring the role of anthropological research and perspective in AI, and automated decision-making as connected smart systems and technology (for example, Alexa and Siri) are increasin...