Madhumita Murgia on her book Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

Madhumita Murgia talks with Vidushi Marda, a lawyer and researcher, about her debut book Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

It cannot be denied that as a race, human beings have become increasingly dependent on machines and automation. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), our reliance on technology has further deepened, resulting in a diminished use of mental faculties.

In her debut book Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI (Pan Macmillan), Madhumita Murgia delves into the many dangers that await if we are not mindful. In a recent discussion with Vidushi Marda, a lawyer and researcher, at Bangalore International Centre, Madhumita touched on how human beings would be exploited by this innovation if it was not closely monitored.

“As a biologist and immunologist working on vaccine design, I realised I didn’t make a very good scientist in practice,” laughs Madhumita. She adds, “I loved the idea of it, but the doing of the science was quite a lonely, closed-off endeavour.”

“So I decided to try something different by communicating complex topics, which included science and that’s how I ended up as a journalist at a magazine about technology, innovation, change and entrepreneurship. That was my introduction to the world of tech.”

“I was fascinated by the perspective of complexity — explaining how something worked, studying its implications when it is functional and very early on AI was the sort of culmination of those things.”

Madhumita says AI was considered “a fringe topic” by scientists who saw it as something that would never work, even in 2013.

According to Madhumita, AI was already changing the present and she wanted to look at how cultures and communities were being affected.