STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) of the government of Assam organized an event to commemorate this year’s edition of National Press Day. The event was organized on the premises of the PWD convention and training centre at Last Gate on Thursday. The event was organized in line with this year’s theme, which is ‘Media in the Era of Artificial Intelligence’.
The Chancellor of Nagaland University, Dr. Samudra Gupta Kashyap, attended this event as the chief guest. Addressing the gathering regarding this year’s theme, he said, “As long as the brains of men of flesh and blood continue to retain control in a proper way, the evils of artificial intelligence will remain within bounds.” He also spoke in detail about the possible benefits as well as problems that can be caused by artificial intelligence (AI) and said that if humans continue to stay in control, they can use AI for development beyond imagination, but if they lose control, it may become a monster and destroy everything.
He also mentioned that the media has faced new challenges from time to time. In 1982, when television started entering households in India, it was speculated to create problems for the print media. It discussed whether it was the end of print media, and similar discussions took place in the Western Nations as well, ahead of India. Six important seminars were organised on these lines in six different locations across the country on the same topic, with Guwahati being one of those locations. Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhupen Hazarika had also mentioned that the television was not responsible for the reduced circulation of the newspapers.
Thereafter, the internet brought another challenge to the print media, but it also had a positive effect on the media. And slowly, with the propagation of social media applications like Facebook, Twitter (now X), etc. since 2004, and later WhatsApp, the speed of propagation of the news increased. These technologies also triggered similar discussions regarding print media.
Although we are worried about artificial intelligence taking over the world, the same has not arrived in a day, and there is ample time to prevent it. He added that several years ago in India, the presence of AI was found in the epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
He did point out some possible negative effects, including the taking over of the narrative of the media to make it biased towards one opinion in terms of communalism, ethnicity, or economic status, but added that these too will be a reflection of the ideologies of the people in real life. He also mentioned that AI might lead to a reduction in workforces and problems of deep fake, which has turned out to be a major cause of concern in recent days.
Manabendra Dev Ray, the director of DIPR, gave the welcome speech for the event. Public Relations, Printing, and Stationery Department secretary Arundhati Chakrabarty was also present. Several senior journalists took part in the event, along with many officials from the directorate. It can be noted that the district units of the directorate as well as its smaller units celebrated National Press Day in different parts of the state.
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