ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: There has been a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence (AI), its potential consequences and its similarities with human consciousness. As Noam Chomsky explained in his article in The New York Times, human consciousness works in a fundamentally opposite way to AI. He gave the example of an infant who receives bits of data of a language and then becomes able to generate all complex structures of the language. In contrast, AI has every bit of available data to look for patterns to generate an answer based on probability. However, emotions and feelings, like, say, love, nostalgia, morality and so on, are purely human distinctions. AI and its proponents simply refuse to even talk about such things. It does not matter how advanced AI gets, it cannot and would not write Daffodils by looking at flowers around the margin of a bay.

Ehtasham Ahmad
Rawalpindi

SHAHZAD TOWN: In Islamabad, Shahzad Town was developed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) over four decades ago. The CDA was responsible for providing all amenities and facilities needed for decent living. The development of the playground started over a year ago, but the project was awarded to a contractor who ran away without properly completing the project. Those managing CDA should get hold of the contractor and have the problem resolved as early as possible.

M. Sharafat Ali Zia
Islamabad

REFLECTIVE SIGN BOARDS: Several accidents have taken place at the railway crossing on Jhelum Road in Rawalpindi’s Chaklala Cantonment area. Motorcyclists fall and sustain injuries because of a technical fault. The underpass crosses the railway track at an angle other than 90 degrees, which is an international standard since the 19th century. The railway authorities should install reflective sign boards close to the left edge of the underpass to guide the motorcyclists at this point so that they may cross the track safely closer to the left end of the crossing.

M. Akram Niazi
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2023