Tame that wonderful beast and make it an assistive tool: Narayana Murthy dispels AI fears

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy recalls a time in the 70s when a set of tools called case tools or Computer aided software engineering tools burst on the software development scene. It was widely believed that these programme generators would spell the death knell for jobs in software development.

But it didn’t happen. Because the human mind found bigger problems to solve and the code generator couldn’t keep up.

In a similar vein, Murthy believes the fears around AI taking away jobs are overblown, and the discussion instead needs to shift to how this can amplify human labour. A tech optimist at heart, the software veteran and one of India’s most storied entrepreneurs believes one must welcome AI, tame it and use it as an assistive tool.

He spoke to Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) event, where it unveiled the decision to lower the upper age limit for the Infosys Prize from 50 to 40 years. Instituted 15 years ago, the Infosys Prize is given annually to honour outstanding achievements of contemporary researchers and scientists in six categories — economics, engineering & computer science, humanities & social sciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences, and physical science.

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Why the decision to set an upper age limit of 40 years for the Infosys Prize?

We have tried this model for 15 years (age limit of 50). It has had some successes, there were also some areas where we could improve. For example, many of the wonderful people that got the prize went on to occupy administrative positions. So, they could not concentrate as much as they would have wanted on their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) work.

The youngsters also felt that in the Indian environment of hierarchy, it was not as easy and simple to interact with these high-level people as they wanted. Number three, the runway for them to do further work was also somewhat less.

Srinivasa Ramanujan did all his seminal work in his early 20s. The Nobel laureate, late Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar came up with the concept of Chandrasekhar limit at the age of 25 at Cambridge. Sir C. V. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 42.

So, there are enough examples where people in STEM, who have done seminal work below the age of 40.

Have you seen an increase in the number of youngsters taking up research from India, in the last 15 years, since the Infosys Prize was instituted?

If you look at surrogate statistics, the answer is yes. The fact that there are so many institutes (increase in the number of IITs, IISCs) automatically means that there is so much hunger amongst the youngsters, boys and girls, to understand the power of science and technology and some of them will get to research.

So, I am very hopeful and very positive that if we create an environment of encouragement, if we create an environment of positivism for youngsters, India too will become a well-known player in the field of research.

We are also at a very interesting time in technology. Every week we see breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and AI models. We saw exciting launches from OpenAI and Google this week. As someone who pioneered the global delivery model for India, what does all this mean for the future of technology and India, how can we capitalise on this to ensure that we are not left behind?

The reality of India is that at this point in time, by and large, we have upgraded ourselves to the orbit of applying ideas and concepts that are invented outside India and do some innovation and become experts. For example, everybody talks about generative AI. Everybody talks about large language models (LLMs) and all that. Now we are talking about Omni. What India today is, is a nation that is ready to seize the ideas that have been generated elsewhere and use it for our own betterment. This is the first step. That’s a very good thing, what has happened. We were not like this 40, 50 years ago, but we have come here. After all, we are a young nation, just 77 years old.

Now, the work of institutions like ISF, the work of people like you is to encourage our youngsters, to create role models for our youngsters to say, “We too will be able to invent new things.” It will happen. I am very positive it will happen. But it is a gradual process. It takes time. My own belief is that a youngster of today is at least 10, 20 times smarter than what I was at their age. So, there is a lot of progress that has happened.

Are you an AI optimist or an AI doomer? Are you worried that it would take away jobs?

No, I am not a pessimist. I have always been an optimist in technology. The important thing for us to remember is there are areas where AI will take away jobs from human beings. For example, autonomous driving, operating machines in hazardous situations like nuclear reactors, etc. The use of remote surgery and precision equipment is another area where AI will play a significant role.

However, in other areas, the smartness is to use AI as an assistive technology.

That is where we must think, how do I welcome this beast, make it my friend and use that wonderful beast to make me even more productive?

I am a confirmed optimist regarding the role of technology in general and specifically in AI. All of this will happen only if we are smart enough to tame that beast and make it an assistive tool.

Do you think it can replace coders?

In 1975, there came a set of tools called case tools. Computer aided software engineering tools that do some requirement definition, some database design, etc. And along with them came some programme generators.

Everybody said this finishes the job opportunity for all youngsters in software development. It didn’t happen.

You know why? The most powerful instrument ever invented by God is the human mind. When that technology of case tools and programme generators got invented, human beings said we want to attack bigger problems, more complex problems and those tools couldn’t handle them.

However, some of them use some of these tools as assistive technologies. And the software industry globally exploded. So I think that concern about losing jobs should be replaced by the discussion, debate and thinking on how do we use AI, generative AI, large language models and all of these to make human beings even more productive.

Finally, what book are you reading these days?

I am right now reading a book called Conceptual Physics. This is a book by a high school teacher called Paul Hewitt. It is written for high school students on how to teach physics.

It's brilliant. I only wish we get permission from the author to translate it to all Indian languages because there are excellent exercises, excellent way of communicating complex ideas. And I want every child from Meghalaya to Kanyakumari to Srinagar to Jamnagar to use these books, this kind of books and become so much better in STEM subjects.