AI: The Gatekeeper of Knowledge?

I've been reading Somi Roy's collation of Manipuri folktales, initially thinking they would be light, humourous and swift to read. While all of these boxes were checked, they were also very thought-provoking. One of them, "And That is Why - Man is Creative and Can Think" caught my attention and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

The Struggle of Creation

This classic Meitei folktale depicts God's creation of Man and his ability to think and create. Yet, the process was not easy—the story emphasises that the creation of any being was a process of trial and error. Man was eventually created, and he uniquely stood out from the monkeys, fish, and frogs that were accidentally created instead of Man.

Now let us take a moment away from this seemingly childlike interpretation of the start of humankind, because it made me think. Historically, mythology and folk tales were powerful forces of culture that bound civilisations together. Fast forward to today's interconnected, globalised world, it is probably AI that is the powerful force shaping the 21st century. Industries are promised revolution, people are promised efficiency, and society is promised frontiers in science, technology and entertainment to be opening up. I am writing this post at a relevant time when China's new AI system DeepSeek (with the caption "Into the Unknown") is all over the news. The Meitei tale can offer some powerful insights (and parallels) into the ethical dilemmas of AI.

Creation and the Gift of Knowledge

Gods create humanity with an awareness of both the beauty and danger of knowledge. Humans, granted the ability to think and reason, are tasked with ensuring that this power is used wisely and justly. This narrative reflects the potential consequences of knowledge without wisdom—a lesson that is increasingly relevant as AI grows in influence and capacity. (Read: BBC's "'I used AI to cheat at uni and regret it.'") I think we all can agree that AI can be a double-edged sword. It can solve complex arithmetic problems, evaluate climate change issues, and even diagnose disease treatment.

Yet, without careful management, AI also threatens to bring about unforeseen harm, as the Gods feared when they gave humanity the gift of reason in the folktale. Is it a gift that has been utilised wisely, though? In terms of reason and rationality, we may have progressed on several fronts over the recent centuries, but they are evolving at a faster rate now. Our digital age has made the once-rigid structure of reason into a constant flow of information. Rationality seems to also be getting more ambiguous as we deal with intertwining political, economic and cultural issues that affect us all. Can we really claim to be independent thinkers who are better than the blind believers of mythology if we are constantly consuming content from technology? Do you, as the independent reader of Four Eyes, know for sure that this blog post is not purely a work of ChatGPT or DeepSeek? (It's not, trust me.)

The Promise of Innovation

The Gods in the folktale promise progress and prosperity with the creation of Man. Inarguably, this was fulfilled and is continuing to occur at splendid rates. Likewise, AI has the potential to redefine the once-thought-unsolvable problems that will push the boundaries of creation to inconceivable lengths. Or will they? The folktale wisely hints at the dangers of unchecked knowledge with bias in decision-making becoming a looming threat to innovation. Every breakthrough might just be accompanied by bias. In an article by Healthcare in Europe, ChatGPT was shown to have struggled with medical questions that were put in layman's terms. large language models are appropriately proficient in textbook definitions, but their accuracy diminishes to as low as 1% when presented with descriptions of rare genetic conditions in everyday language. Human language is incredibly nuanced, so AI potentially messing up life-and-death situations is slightly concerning to me.

So, the question posed by the Meitei myth is echoed in the AI debate: Are we ready for the power we’ve created? And if we are, are we prepared to handle its consequences?

Now let us use a more accessible tale of the folks for the past many decades: Spider-Man. Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility." Wise words for a teenager, but James Clear says, (which I reiterate in a previous post of mine) "With great responsibility comes great power." Wiser words for a teenager like me who uses AI on a daily, even if it is for good, academic purposes. The developers of AI, like the gods of the Meitei myth, must consider the broader implications of their creations.

The Gatekeeper of Knowledge?

A notable theme is how the Gods are the gatekeepers of knowledge as they not only have the power of creation but also the power to decide how humanity should access this power. This seems to mirror the role of AI where algorithms similarly filter content across the internet. In other words, a new form of technological censorship that is becoming more contemporary with China's DeepSeek. You might have seen clips of users attempting to ask controversial questions. An answer that is in the midst of being generated is suddenly deleted for users to be met with "Sorry, that's beyond my current scope. Let's talk about something else." Algorithms like DeepSeek and even the more "democratic" ChatGPT claim to protect society from harmful content, such as misinformation, hate speech, or violent imagery. But at what point does this moderation become censorship? Stifling free speech by restricting digital access to information appears undemocratic to me, though...

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The Meitei folktale offers timeless wisdom that is as relevant today as it was in ancient times. As we push the boundaries of AI, which appears to be inevitable given how politically competitive this field is becoming, we must remember to temper innovation with wisdom. Who knows? Maybe AI can give the answers to cancer or humans being able to fly if it revisits cultural folktales from around the world.