India’s Challenge is No Longer Literacy but Creativity

Last week a very close friend’s daughter bid farewell to school. The outgoing Class XII had been asked to write something for the school magazine on this watershed moment. She took an out-of-the-box approach instead of the usual platitudes. Unsurprisingly, her quirky verses did not make the cut. Most schools in India take a dim view of students going off the beaten path, thinking differently or even being imaginative or creative. Humour is frowned upon too.

From a civilisation that has traditionally valued inquiry and introspection, post-colonial Indian students are force-fed sets of prescribed thoughts and actions that depend on the ideological inclinations of prevailing dispensations. Textbooks and policies form the boundaries of knowledge, meaning that young minds are trained to collate only available information and form responses based on that. They are, in effect, turned into chatbots rather than thinking human beings.

A much discussed topic these days is whether ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (Al)-backed language processing tool, will eliminate many professions including writing and journalism. Its fans point out that it can conduct conversations, write emails, compose essays and even code passably. And some of its interactions and offerings are startlingly human-like. So, will it render our upper storeys redundant eventually? Only if humans jettison one unique talent: imagination.

At best ChatGPT trawls through all available information to formulate creditable and credible answers and essays. It is detailed and competent, but it cannot, so far, venture beyond what is already there. It can compose poetry, lyrics and jokes; but then, there is good poetry and bad, great jokes and poor ones, brilliant lyrics and mediocre ones produced by humans. What usually distinguishes one from the other is depth and originality. And the latter comes from imagination.

Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/epaper/delhicapital/2023/apr/15/satet-back/indias-challenge-is-no-longer-literacy-but-creativity/articleshow/99502975.cms