Let Me Tell You A Story Grandma…
By: Rushabh Wadkar
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Covid Diaries, Jobs, Technology, Machine Learning

Grandma: “What is all this about people losing jobs and machine take over the world? I don’t understand. Why are we letting machines do this to us?”

Rushabh: “Calm down Granny! What has gotten into you? What are you going on about?”

Grandma: “ CALM DOWN?! Here the world is going to be taken over by machines. They are teaching machines in schools already, I think.”

Rushabh: “Ha ha, what? Teaching machines? Do you mean Machine Learning? Wow Granny, you’ve got quite the visualization. Sit down, let me explain.”

Grandma: *grumbles* “Don’t you dare support these machines now. I’m warning you!!”

Rushabh: “Hear me out, now will you?”

Rushabh: “So Machine Learning, or ML like we call it; is a part of something called Artificial Intelligence. Like the name suggests, it means to give the machine a part of our intelligence to help it make decisions. Actually anything that helps a machine act and mimic human is Artificial Intelligence.”

Rushabh: *pulls out his phone* “Hey Google!! Remind me to get Grandma’s medicines! See grandma! This is artificial intelligence. The assistant on my phone is acting like a human and will remind me just like you do!”

Grandma: “Okay... that’s nice. Doesn’t seem like the end of the world. But what is this evil ‘Machine Learning’? It is dangerous right?”

Rushabh: “Well… Like i said machine learning is a part of artificial intelligence that learns to do things better with memory experience. Do you remember when I would call you ‘amma’ instead of ‘grandma’ just because mom and dad used to call you that? ”

Grandma: “Yeah, you were so cute! How can I forget?”

Rushabh: “Well the machine does that too. If you show the machine a dog 10 times and tell it that, this is a dog; the 11th time the computer will remember. This is called visual learning. This way it learns to remember people, and even things like table, chair, fruits or even our pet Bosco!”

Grandma: “Wow that’s a relief. We should give your dad this. He doesn’t remember my aunt’s sister’s daughters or my father’s cousin’s sons. It will definitely help him.”

Rushabh: “Ha ha! We definitely should!”

Grandma: “But Rushabh! Don’t you fool me! This might be some good points. But taking away jobs of so many youngsters, is an evil that cannot be forgiven! This is like industrial revolution all over again! SO MANY PEOPLE LOSING JOBS!!”

Rushabh: “So smart of you grandma! Answering your own questions. Well tell me, doesn’t dad and mom still have jobs? Didn’t grandpa have a job till he retired too?”

Grandma: “What do you mean? Don’t play those word games with your poor old grandma!”

Rushabh: “No!.. What I simply meant was, there aren’t any jobs lost. The jobs are just changing. Before during industrial revolution, people who did jobs like capping a bottle or taping a box were replaced by machines. But there were so many new jobs created for technicians and maintenance personnel. Similarly now due to machine learning too, jobs are merely changing. Not all is lost!!”

Grandma: “Oh! That’s a relief! I don’t want you sitting at home doing nothing!”

Rushabh: “Well grandma!! I might be sitting at home with this COVID-19 situation! But sure won’t do nothing! See I already enrolled in this Machine Learning course! Ha ha!”

Rushabh: “Come now, let’s take a selfie with your favorite filter!”

Grandma: “Oh! Wow! I like how it makes my wrinkles disappear! But you better not fool me like the last time with dog ears!!”

Rushabh: “Oh no! I wouldn’t dare…. But granny!! You know? These filters.. they are Machine Learning too!!”

*Rushabh laughs loudly, only to be joined by granny who learnt machines aren’t taking over the world so soon!!*