The joy of AI

Professor Prem Shankar sat at his desk, staring at a blank document on the computer. He couldn't believe he was resigning after three years of teaching at a college under Kerala University, in Thiruvananthapuram.

He had joined the college with the express purpose of establishing a research career in data science. He believed that the personal touch of a competent data science teacher would help his students, especially in a world where machine-driven algorithms were increasingly replacing humans. But he felt the college placed little value on research or the benefits it provided to its students. He decided to quit his job.

It was the time when ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, had opened to the public for experimentation. Prem Shankar, who believed in the superiority of human touch over machine algorithms, asked ChatGPT to write his resignation letter.