The Directors have CEOs/MDs. CEOs/MDs have VPs/GMs. VPs/GMs have Managers. Managers have Executives/Officers. Executives/Officers have interns. What do the interns have?

Artificial Intelligence, yes, AI!

Thanks to this, everyone can have that coveted Alfred-Batman relation where AI can do their bidding for them using the actual sigma, the ‘Chad-GPT.’

The author’s earliest memory of using AI for work dates back to an earlier part of his childhood. Who used to annoy us by popping up and asking questions like if we were writing a ransom note? 

You guessed it, Microsoft Clippy. This was back in the early 2000s, at the beginning of the millennium. 

Then came the brilliant-looking chatbots on various websites, which were more ornamental than useful.

Then, one fine day, AI announced its arrival in the West, and just like every other trend in Bangladesh, it caught on, slowly but surprisingly, everywhere, while confusing everyone. 

This was like TikTok or Dalgona coffee during the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone thought they had summoned Gordon Ramsey (British celebrity chef) within them.

Meet Mr. Nahid Hasan (fictional character), an executive in the brand and marketing department. Creative bloke, loves Joya Ahsan (Bangladeshi actress), hates Excel. 

He used to write social media captions full of poetic flair and, at times, used irrelevant hashtags, which in most cases were wrongly used, like:

On this rainy day #Mood #Coffee with a side of deadline #AmarShohorJadurShohor (means, my magical city).

Once Mr. Nahid caught the ChatGPT fever, he began writing as if he were the embodiment of Indian politician and writer Shashi Tharoor.

Experienced a delightful beverage for rainy climate productivity enhancement. #CorporateMood #LiquidEfficiency

However, Mr. Nahid had to be disappointed with the outcome as his GPT-generated heavyweight English fell short of reactions on social media, compared to someone’s pouting washroom selfie.

Next up, we have Ms Arena (another fictional character). Creatively flamboyant and a master of illustrations, she used to create highly professional posters within three days. 

Two years ago, during Pahela Falgun (the first day of Spring), her poster featured yellow sarees, joyful ladies, rickshaws, Marigold flowers, and, lastly, a quote from Rabindranath Tagore. 

Last year, her manager stumbled upon Midjourney AI. So, what does he do? In his ‘telegram (not the app) English’, he writes (without any idea about how to write prompts):

“Make festive Bangladeshi spring culture in vector art full of traditional native clothes, famous architecture, and flowers.”

The result? A Sri Lankan lady wearing a Lungi holding a sunflower, standing in front of a structure that looks suspiciously like the White House.

But the manager was convinced by the result. AI felt like a smarter tool to design posters. 

Ms. Arena tried to dissuade him but failed. Her illustration skills and career got a big question mark of uncertainty.

Whether the above two stories are true or not is debatable, but this has been a common scenario in various parts of the industry. 

This author reached out to professionals across various industries and age groups to discuss their day-to-day experiences with AI usage. 

Students using AI to complete academic assignments is perhaps the most insignificant aspect of AI usage today, as smart tools are now heavily utilized by professionals.

Nujhat Nishat Yousuf, deputy executive, research and market analytics, Ispahani Tea Limited, opined, “Elicit helped me a lot during my research, but a key problem is that most of the helpful AI tools must be subscribed to to harness their full potential.”

Mr. Firoz Alam, chief financial officer at GEMCON Group, when asked about the use of AI in professional areas, said, “AI is revolutionizing the professional workspace by enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency, especially in finance.” 

“Embracing AI responsibly, with a focus on data security, is key to staying competitive in today’s dynamic market. I shifted to GROK instead of ChatGPT because the latter seems quite generic .”

Ashim Kumar Roy, corporate governance and financial reporting compliance executive at Dhaka Stock Exchange PLC, told the scribe, “I was skeptical about the usage of ChatGPT considering the lack of its power in early stages of development. But now with its significant development, it helps as a tool to learn new aspects of compliance.”

Torikul Islam Raihan, owner and teacher at Genesis Coaching Center, Narayanganj, was ecstatic when asked about the professional benefits of AI. 

“Canva Magic has been my go-to tool for designing promos and banners for my coaching. The olden days are gone; usage of AI made my work go faster with better outputs, which allowed me to save time.”

Oishee Rahman, research assistant of applied chemistry and chemical engineering, University of Dhaka, said, “AI tools like ChatGPT and perplexity helped me collect research data for my work and find relevant articles about specific research problems.”

Nasser Mohammad Mohsin, writer and managing director at Third Eye Solutions, believes AI is practically a revolution for ad agencies.

“For creative people, as long as the right skill in AI can be learnt, it helps in producing content faster. Be it Gamma.Ai or Midjourney AI, this helped me streamline many of my workflows, lessening the dependency on people for projects.”

Mohammad Tashfiq Zubair, a merchandising manager, said, “Although I do not need to use AI that much yet for my work purpose, on a personal level, ChatGPT gives me a better result than usual Google searches.”

On the other hand, this widespread acceptance of AI is causing creative damage in some cases, especially in the realm of creative writing, as shared by Mohammad Saiful Islam, a journalist.

“There has been a dearth of authentic writers these days who do not use AI to write. Everyone wants to be a writer by generating basic robotic writing using AI.” 

“That’s why I hold my authentic writers very dear to me, every time I see any of my authentic writers resorting to AI, feeling frustrated, I nudge them back to their true nature, authenticity,” he said.

Whether it is good or bad is debatable, but the use of AI is inevitable. Overdependency, or sole dependency on this AI, can impact people’s creativity. 

Recently, a study published by MIT lab scholars claimed that dependency on ChatGPT causes a creative rot in the human brain.

Remember that girl/boy whom you thought you were gonna end up with and relied solely on them? How did that turn out after they cheated/left? 

Exactly. When we rely solely on something, we give it our absolute power. When we stop thinking with our heads and blindly rely on AI for every single issue, we lose sight of our uniqueness, which is what makes us who we are. We cannot be slaves to anything; instead, we need to be masters of it. 

Let’s hit with another cliché example. When was the last time you met a friend with your cellphone in your bag/pocket and you just talked, actually talked, without being glued to the pings and blinks of your phone? 

If you did it recently, how was it different from the times when you were glued to your phone? 

Just like that Bangla Second Paper essay in the board exam, in the age-old question of whether science is a curse or a blessing, we all used to conclude with something. 

Technology was never the problem. Even the wheel itself was a technology back then. The problem was always the users. 

Social media influencers use AI to generate income (many others do), but if we only fixate on how DeepFake was used to make fake porns, we are holding ourselves back. 

AI is never the enemy; it is simply a tool. However, sadly, we do not just use tools; we first overuse them, then misuse them, and then create memes to pacify ourselves. 

At the same time, the key is to learn how to use it properly. The advent of computers led to the loss of many jobs, and a huge number of people from earlier generations resented it. But can we imagine a world without it? Those who learned how to use it survived. 

When it comes to AI, the same thing applies. We cannot fall prey to it. No, it won’t rise as the overlords like in the sci-fi movies as the ‘career coaches’ suggest, but we had better learn how to master it. 

In the best-case scenario, it stays, and you reap the benefits. In the worst-case scenario, you remain aligned with a trend that has been ongoing for several years.

 

Galib Nakib Rahman initially worked as an MTO and, later, as an executive officer with Prime Bank PLC. He is currently a senior executive at the Dhaka Stock Exchange, serving in the Corporate Governance and Financial Reporting Compliance Department within the Regulatory Affairs Division.