00:00Good evening everyone and dignitaries in the dais.
00:05Thank you for accommodating my speech to be out of sequence.
00:09It's an absolute privilege and honour for me to be standing in front of you
00:16and share a few points in the context of global Kerala business.
00:30The CEO of Asianet, Sri Frank Thomas, articulated several concerns.
00:41Specifically, you know, what happens if U.S. decides to switch off, let's say, Google
00:49or other products on which we are depending on.
00:53He went about articulating what will happen to our credit cards, what will happen to our daily course of life.
01:09I think what he mentioned is about really, you know, the dependency on this need to come down
01:17and how do we secure, even if we use some foreign products, how do we ensure that we are not
01:23taken for ransom.
01:24I think that's the key thing.
01:28And then from a policy perspective, I think Honourable Chief Minister as well as Sri Ramesh
01:38spoke eloquently, and that's not my subject, so I will stay away from it.
01:42And I think those policies, the statements and the investor confidence,
01:49all are important points and I think, you know, I will leave that away.
01:55And I've been in the industry for the last about 45 years.
02:00I've seen the growth of India, I've seen the growth of different cities in which we operate,
02:07different states in which we operate, different countries in which we operate,
02:12from multiple angles.
02:15Mr. Tata always used to say to us that, look, you need to understand the problem from all angles.
02:21If you look at it from one angle, you may miss out many other things.
02:25So when I looked at this particular perspective of Kerala, global business,
02:34about three dimensions came to my mind.
02:36Number one is trade.
02:40Trade is important.
02:41If you want to do business, trade is important.
02:45And I think we are doing a decent job in terms of facilitating trade.
02:51The investments that are happening over the last about 10-12 years,
02:57the infrastructure that is getting created,
03:00the ambitions that the industry has for Kerala,
03:04all are in the right direction.
03:09The second thing is technology.
03:13Trade is important, technology is important.
03:17And I think Kerala is in the forefront of technology in everything that it does.
03:23It doesn't hesitate to embrace the technology.
03:28And I think that will continue, that will keep facilitating the growth in trade,
03:34growth in policies, growth in per capita, in all aspects.
03:41I will come back to technology a bit.
03:44The third T, which I felt, is tradition.
03:47Tradition is extremely important from the concept or context of what I am going to speak about,
03:54artificial intelligence, because much of the concerns expressed were basically on artificial intelligence.
04:01I am very pleased to note that, you know, wherever I have seen, wherever I have been in Kerala,
04:07tradition is very important.
04:08Tradition has been maintained.
04:12With some amount of, you know, wherever thing can change in tradition,
04:15I think I have seen it, but then largely tradition has been preserved.
04:20I think which is a, in my opinion, it's going to be a very, very solid foundation
04:25on which business growth is going to take place.
04:29Why am I saying that?
04:31If you, in the context of AI, I will just say about two things before I wrap up.
04:37Like any other technology that we have embraced in the past,
04:43technology has resulted in better quality of work.
04:47It might appear that your technology is going to take away the jobs,
04:51but then overall quality of work has increased,
04:55and the volume of work that the technology enables to handle nearly doubles or quadruples,
05:03with the result, over a period of time,
05:07the impact of the technology has been one of creating net higher jobs.
05:14We have seen it in many aspects.
05:17Every time a new technology has come,
05:19we have seen that this concern of,
05:21is it going to take away my job has been coming.
05:25I believe that AI is no exception,
05:27while in the short term,
05:29as any other technology,
05:30there is many things,
05:32many concerns are there,
05:34and people are putting this rhetoric that is going to take away everything.
05:39And AI is coming at every one of our roles.
05:43And I have been, you know,
05:46practicing or building AI technology for the last about ten years.
05:51Many things that it does is helping me evolve as a person,
05:55many things is helping me to do the mundane things better,
05:59and it gives me more time to do things that I want to do.
06:03So I think, you know,
06:04first is I would like to alleviate concerns on AI,
06:08as a person who has worked with this for quite some time.
06:12And I will briefly give one example,
06:15and why it is so,
06:17and why I feel it is important to understand this,
06:20and why tradition is important in this context.
06:23If you take AI or an algorithm which actually gets built,
06:29and people talked about making the algorithms responsible,
06:33and I think the speaker,
06:36Mr. Tony Thomas is probably going to explain this even better.
06:40And when an algorithm goes into it,
06:44the algorithm has to be made responsible,
06:46and it should not create problems for us.
06:49I mean, that's a,
06:50everybody talks about it.
06:51It shouldn't create problems.
06:52It should become a,
06:53it should not become a monster,
06:55eventually.
06:55How do you do that?
06:58And tradition,
06:59if you say typically the AI or the agent,
07:02or the algorithm that you train,
07:05typically takes that mentality of the designer.
07:10And let me explain this.
07:11If you are putting it,
07:13an algorithm,
07:14in a automated car,
07:17let's say an autonomous car,
07:20cars are traveling in the highway.
07:23Now,
07:24this car is in the second lane,
07:26and I have to go to the first lane.
07:30When it goes there,
07:32there are two options which is there.
07:33And it looks at it,
07:35there is a car coming behind in the first lane.
07:38So,
07:39I can wait,
07:40and then allow the car to go,
07:43and then get into the next,
07:45next lane.
07:46That's one way of writing the algorithm.
07:48The other way of writing the algorithm is,
07:50no,
07:50let it come.
07:51That car is coming at,
07:52let's say,
07:5380 kilometers per hour.
07:55I'm going to accelerate,
07:57I'm going to make it to,
07:58100 kilometers per hour,
07:59so I'm going to beat that car.
08:02That's the other way of writing the algorithm.
08:04It depends on the individual.
08:08My way of thinking is,
08:12I don't want to lose,
08:13I'll always want to win.
08:14If I take that attitude,
08:16I might compromise on the safety,
08:18and I might actually run,
08:20teach the algorithm to go faster,
08:21and then beat that car.
08:23Whereas,
08:25the other way of doing it is that,
08:26no, no, no,
08:27I'm a safe person,
08:28I want to leave it,
08:29let it go,
08:30then I'll go into the next one.
08:31Which one is better?
08:32It's hard.
08:34It's a hard question to ask.
08:36And it's a hard question to answer.
08:39That's where,
08:40the tradition comes into play.
08:43We have been doing some research on,
08:45making algorithms,
08:47responsible.
08:50The dharmic way,
08:52of thinking,
08:54when I say dharmic way,
08:56we have engaged with people,
08:58people who have learned Sanskrit.
09:02And,
09:03they are thinking,
09:04the Sanskrit grammar is a very unique grammar.
09:08So,
09:09likewise,
09:09German language,
09:10grammar is very similar to,
09:12the Sanskrit language.
09:14We employed a few people,
09:16who have known,
09:18Sanskrit language,
09:20and German language.
09:21and then,
09:22tried it to think,
09:24you know,
09:24ask them to design this.
09:27The way that they look at it is,
09:28they look at the problem from all angles.
09:31Their grammar helps in facilitating this.
09:34So,
09:35that's where I believe,
09:35tradition is going to be very important.
09:37And I think,
09:38Kerala is a unique situation,
09:40in terms of,
09:42maintaining the tradition,
09:43people thinking,
09:44traditionally,
09:44and people thinking,
09:46the dharmic way.
09:48And,
09:48I think,
09:49the previous speaker also,
09:52spoke about,
09:54compassion,
09:54empathy,
09:55all of this.
09:56Looking at all of this,
09:58is going to be,
09:59extremely crucial,
10:00in the AI world.
10:02And,
10:02I do believe that,
10:03companies who are going to be fast,
10:07is not going to be the winner,
10:08in this era.
10:11Companies who are going to be,
10:13choosing,
10:15let's say,
10:15people over efficiency,
10:18or,
10:20meaning over margins,
10:22probably are going to be,
10:23most successful.
10:25Right?
10:25So,
10:26on that note,
10:26I,
10:27once again,
10:28want to thank all of you,
10:29for listening to me,
10:30and giving me this opportunity.
10:31I have to go for another,
10:33appointment.
10:35And,
10:36I enjoyed,
10:37being here,
10:37and I,
10:39look for another opportunity,
10:40to be with all of you.
10:41Thank you so much.
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