Human versus Artificial Connections
Why does Human presence matter even more?
Have you ever wondered what would happen if all stores were run by bots?
Even if they have emotional intelligence, will they be able to replace Human presence?
I live in a populated country like India where it is impossible to walk even 500 meters without bumping into other human beings.
Human spontaneity over artificial intelligence
Recently, I was visiting the market in my locality.
We have markets outside every 2–3 clusters of apartments.
As I roamed around, I entered a small garment shop. A thin man greeted me as I told him my requirements.
‘Do you have track pants from Jockey?’
He replied ‘Yes’ and went further inside into a small rectangular room with a table behind which there were shelves stocked with clothes.
He immediately took out many track pants, but I was a bit reluctant as they were priced higher. One of them got my interest which was also branded, of high quality and within my price range.
I asked him if they had more of these. After a bit of searching, there was one more with a better color and I took that after getting a discount.
We went back to the billing counter but just before that, he asked if I wanted to look upstairs as they had more items there.
I was just fascinated by the idea of how such a small store could have so many things. Also, the spiraling iron stairs appeared to be like a gateway to another land.
A bit of romance doesn’t hurt, right?
I followed him upstairs and it was like a carpeted room containing smaller items like hair clips, Kajal, innerwear and a lot more..My eyes wandered around to find what I needed mostly smaller things which are hard to order online.
But, the point is, could AI replicate such spontaneity in terms of suddenly deciding or changing its mind to do something else other than what was planned?
Arguments over differences
In one of the optical stores, there was a young girl asking the salesman not to be a salesman.
‘I got my first salary today. Please don’t be a salesman and help me in buying without overselling.’
Can we ask a bot not to be a salesman and instead help us find something with our own considerations?
Empathy
Next, I entered a salon where I was offered a bottle of water first. After that, we had a conversation about how the owner started his own salon after the brand he was working for got dismantled.
And then we just got carried away by some other discussion of how salons have a higher footfall here in high rises.
I wonder if we can have a similar unplanned conversation with a bot? Conversations that are made up of abrupt pauses and full stops to start an unrelated topic altogether. This is also related to spontaneity as well.
In conclusion, we need Humans. Robots are too perfect. Humans? They’re imperfect, but that’s what makes them special.
