Narayana Murthy bats for tech, cautions against 'unsupervised learning'

Technology is a “great leveller” and has the power to bridge the gap between the affluent and poor, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said, while cautioning against “unsupervised learning.”

 

Responding to a question from Abhyuday Jindal, president of Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), on whether India should be embracing artificial intelligence (AI) or approaching with caution, Murthy said, “We need technology in India if we want to reduce the gap between the well-to-do and the not-so-well-to-do. That’s what financial inclusion has done.”

 

He listed some areas where AI could play a key role. For instance, it has a role in driverless cars, precision and surgical operation, hazardous operations that expose human beings to high risk and disease detection that comes with huge data.

 

Citing the example of computerisation in the banking industry, Murthy said, the bank union in 1971 in Britain went on strike against computers.

 

However, in the end, computerisation helped expand banks and create new branches. The same thing happened in India as well, Murthy, who was speaking at the ICC centenary launch event, said.

 

Technology, he said, was here to stay. “As long as you are the master of technology, it is great. The day you become a slave of technology…the day you do not create guardrails for unsupervised learning, then we don’t know what that programme will do. That is why every nation must respect its scholars,” he said.  

 

While addressing the Chamber, Murthy also urged entrepreneurs to embrace “compassionate capitalism.”

 

“My humble request to every one of you is to embrace compassionate capitalism,” said Murthy. He added that practising capitalism, while combining the best aspects of liberalism and socialism, would make sure that the country stands as a stellar example of the success of capitalism. 

 

Murthy was a Leftist socialist in his student days. “It was very easy to be a Leftist and socialist in those days because Jawaharlal Nehru was our Prime Minister and he had embraced Harold Laskian socialism.”

 

On the issue of long working hours as Murthy has been pitching for, he said that it was the responsibility of youngsters to make the country number one in the world. “Once you benchmark yourself against the best global company, there is a lot that Indians will have to do,” he said.

 

He added,"A gentleman here told me that a Chinese worker was 3.5 times more productive than an Indian worker."

 

Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RPSG group, however, had a “slightly” different take on the subject of longer working hours. “I would measure myself by the amount of work that needs to be done. If I can finish the work faster than I had set out, then I would set a stiffer target for myself,” said Goenka in the conversation with Murthy and Jindal.