The Horse May Fly

A few years ago, I painted a horse.

I was looking at it recently and remembered the old Birbal story about a theif sentenced to death who gets a year’s reprieve by promising to teach the king’s horse to fly.

When asked how he could possibly do it, he says:

“The king may die. I may die. The horse may die. Or the horse may fly.”

I thought about that story while reading some of the increasingly dramatic predictions about Artificial Intelligence.

AI will transform humanity. It will take our jobs, become more intelligent than us. And going by the recent dooms day predictions, It may even destroy us.

What struck me was that the thief in that story was not really making four predictions.

He was simply acknowledging that he had no idea what the next year would bring.

Perhaps that is where we are with AI.

AI may create problems we haven’t imagined. Or it may solve problems we thought were unsolvable. Who knows, it may even become something quite different from what we think it is today.

Maybe, it may even surprise us in ways that turn out to be extraordinarily good for humanity.

The point is, there is a rather large space between these possibilities that nobody can see very clearly yet.

Maybe that is the uncomfortable part.

Or perhaps it is also the interesting part.

So, when I look at the horse painting, I find myself thinking about all those possibilities again.

The king may die.
I may die.
The horse may die.

Or the horse may fly.

I suppose we will find out.