Relax, enjoy the dawn of the AI era, and disregard frightening headlines

From 1980s fears over banking computerisation to today's worries about AI, the author argues that technological change inspires anxiety before it ultimately reshapes society for the better

I distinctly recall how in the mid-1980s, when I was in the first decade of my working life in Mumbai (then Bombay), newspaper headlines were dominated by things like: “Bank unions warn: Computerisation to throw thousands out of work”. 

Even a nerd like me, fresh out of IIM Calcutta and trying hard to get our advertising agency to take off, would wonder: “Is the world coming to an end? Is India about to experience a mass revolution that would change its character?” It was loudly proclaimed, in slogans and headlines (with no private television channels or Internet, these mattered back