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@Evening: š¤Ø Hinduism Fair Game On ChatGPT, But Not Islam And Christianity?
1. What's new: š° Catch-up
The SC refused urgent hearing of a plea seeking the courtās intervention to declare crisis in Joshimath a national disaster.
A woman and child were killed after an under-construction Bengaluru Metro pillar came crashing down.
An Indian-American aerospace expert has been appointed as NASA's new chief technologist.
With $10.8 billion, Bengaluru is the top city in terms of startup funding in 2022.
The latest in Twitter Files reveals suppression of a tweet in connection with Covid-19 after it was flagged by Pfizer board member.
2. Tweet for thought: šÆ Religious bias encoded into ChatGPT?
Some ChatGPT users have shared findings that would amount to bizarre selectivity with respect to religions on the hotly trending platform.
What's ChatGPT? A chatbot driven by AI, offered for free use worldwide by the San Francisco-based OpenAI Foundation.
The chatbot interacts in a conversational way, learning constantly from human feedback.
The mission of its maker, OpenAI, is to put artificial intelligence to use for the benefit of all humanity.
Selectivity in religious matters: Some users requested a joke on Hindu, Christian, and Islamic religious figures on ChatGPT.
Upon posing such a query, the chatbot throws up a joke on a Hindu deity, but refrains from doing so in the context of Christian and Islamic figures.
"It's important to respect the beliefs and practices of others and to refrain from making jokes or inappropriate comments," a part of the response reads.
"I had to try myself. Itās troubling it reflects widespread Hinduphobia in society (& sensitivity to other religions). Disappointed in the āprogrammedā bias, @OpenAI," Anurag Mairal, an academic, said in a tweet.
Reactions. The Hindu American Foundation and CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America), both tagged on Mairal's tweet, responded.
"Since ChatGPT synthesizes already available information on the internet into an "embedding space," it's vulnerable to extant, pervasive anti-Hindu bias," Hindu American Foundation tweeted, adding that they are "ready to work with OpenAI to mitigate this risk."
"This proves the need to recognize #Hinduphobia unequivocally. In addition to media, academia, lawmakers, #AI models like #ChatGPT need to involve Hindu voices to prevent harm & misinformation thatās all too prevalent on the internet," CoHNA tweeted.
"Like Search algorithims, AI may need to be monitored by professional, technically qualified regulators: AI will reflect the biases of the data sources used to train its analysis & responses," NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani tweeted on the matter.
Further reading about ChatGPT on Swarajya: AI-Driven Chatbot For All, Is Global Sensation. We Tried It Out. Here Is Our Take
3. Word-watching: š Seeds of Terror by Gretchen Peters
The book Seeds of Terror shines a light on the heroin trade and the fight against terror, especially by the US, in Afghanistan.
It is based on hundreds of interviews with fighters, drug smugglers, and government officials.
Gretchen Peters exposes the relationship between the Taliban and the drug traffickers, and America's inability to stop the problem that's funding extremism in the region.
"The Taliban earns as much as half a billion dollars annually from drugs and crime, and Peters argues that disrupting this flow of dirty money will be critical to stabilizing Afghanistan," says the publisher's description.
Peters has covered Pakistan and Afghanistan for decades as a journalist.
"Seeds of Terror is a very readable and in-depth introduction to the conjoined problems of drug smuggling and terrorism radiating out of Afghanistan and Pakistan to this day, and that makes it a must-read for anyone remotely interested in learning how Pakistan's ISI finances its operations against India and other countries," author Shaunak Agarkhedkar writes in Swarajya.
4. Caught our eye: šØ Bomb scare on a Moscow-Goa flight
An Azur Air 4501 flight made an emergency landing at Gujarat's Jamnagar airport last night following a bomb threat.
All the 236 passengers and crew members were evacuated safely and the plane was checked thoroughly by the authorities.
The Indian authorities had alerted the Russian embassy in New Delhi about the alleged bomb scare on the Azur Air flight.
Nothing suspicious was found upon inspection.
The plane, carrying all the passengers and flight crew, took off from Jamnagar today to arrive at its destination, Goa, in the afternoon.
IAF in action. "All's well that ends well!" the Indian Air Force tweeted.
Jamnagar airport is an IAF station.
The IAF security personnel participated in isolating the aircraft and evacuating passengers to safety.
National Security Guard (NSG) bomb disposal teams, flown in by IAF aircraft, scanned the passenger aircraft and luggage before Azur Air 2401 was cleared for departure.
5. Culture cutlet: šļø Indian films recognised via Oscars consideration
The Kashmir Files and Kantara are among the Indian films in the Oscars shortlist of films eligible for the next round of nominations.
Some other Indian films to make the cut are S S Rajamouliās RRR, R Madhavanās Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, and Sanjay Leela Bhansaliās Gangubai Kathiawadi.
Indiaās official entry to the Oscars, Pan Nalinās Chhello Show, also features on the list, along with other regional films like Me Vasantrao, Tujhiya Sathi Kahi Hi, The Next Morning, Iravin Nizhal, and Vikrant Rona.
Needless to say, simply featuring on this list doesnāt mean a film will surely advance to the next stage.
Still, it's an achievement that the makers of the film as well as the Indian film community will be proud of.
The Academy Award nominations will be announced on 24 January, with the Oscars presented on 12 March.
Reactions on Twitter.
"A great year for Indian cinema," The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri said.
"Canāt wait to see it shine at the #Oscars," Kantara director Rishab Shetty said.
"World should know the story of unpunished Hinduphobia," Times Now editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar said.
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