Narayan Devanathan, Group Chief Strategic Advisor, Dentsu India, decoded the complexities of AI and its implications for marketing during the Dentsu Spotlight Session at the dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report launch event.

On the sidelines of the unveiling thedentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2024,Narayan Devanathan shared his insights into the promises, potentials, and perils of technology, Devanathan said that while discussing AI, it's crucial to avoid getting caught up in the hype and instead focus on understanding its promise and potential.

“WithAI, we have a technology that could impact every aspect of humanity, akin to the invention of the internet. We face a choice: to harness its capabilities for the betterment of the world or succumb to primal instincts,” he said.

Stressing the pressing need to focus on sustainability in marketing, he said, “While this topic was given to me, I conveniently deleted the words "inmarketing" because we're good at ignoring briefs most of the time. But let’s connect the dots - society is such an important and critical stakeholder in everything that we do as we go forward. It goes back to something that has become a convenient mantra for all of us in business for a decade now, "Do well by doing good."

“In the context of sustainability, it is no longer enough to do good. We have to do it right”. That is a much tougher proposition, the leader shared his vision.

We need to include that in the conversation when we are so excited about the potential and promise of AI. Because we have to go into this with our eyes open about the perils as well, he pointed out.

Referring to a Charles Dickens quote, Devanathan said, “The quote is from the middle of the 1800s and taken from the opening lines of the book "Tale of Two Cities," and it seems so paradoxical, so oxymoronic when you read all of the words. But also, at the same time, it seems so contemporary. It seems like he could have written this today. It could have been written about tomorrow as well. And it begs the question: what is it exactly? Is it the best of times? Is it the worst of times? Is it a time for wonder? Is it a time for despair? And the answer is yes, because it is all of the above. But what it can become is up to us.”

He shared further, “Some of you may be familiar with this metaphor of how, especially in the last 40 years or so technology has progressed through our society. There's something called the peak of inflated expectations. We've seen that with VR, we've seen that with the metaverse, we've seen that with other technologies. But the ride from the peak of inflated expectations to the trough of disillusionment has been swift for many technologies because they've not lived up to the promise that they came with.

“How many of you still even remember that thing called anNFT? How many of us are still swimming in the metaverse? How many of us have actually been party to web 3 the way it was promised to be? But it's not all despair, because while those technologies might have fallen from the peak of inflated expectations to the trough of disillusionment, the technology of the day that we've been talking about has actually gone from there to what is called the plateau of productive reality.

“And it's gone about it in an almost unnoticed way. As far back as 2011 itself, one of the most mainstream introductions of AI was amongst us in the form of “Siri” and it's become such an integral part of our realities. That's why the potential and the promises will always outweigh what we can do.”

Further in his talk, Narayan Devanathan said: “So far, at least, artificial intelligence is still no match for human stupidity. The dumb things that we are capable of as humans are because our scales of intelligence vary so much. Machines are still learning from us. Some movies like ‘Robot’ and ‘Her’ showcase the intersection of the worst of human biology and chemistry - when a human falls in love with a robot. So, we're still plumbing the depths of human stupidity. Machines have a long way to go. Or do they? Because we've experimented with this. We've seen how machines are catching up to our levels of stupidity.”

“But actually, that's not the main story. The main story, as so vividly demonstrated, was we'll never have to be threatened by machines because AI is never going to stand for artificial imagination. It's artificial intelligence and imagination will always be a human domain,” he noted

“And that's why the potential and the promises will always outweigh what we can do. The future can be whatever we want it to be, and it's our responsibility as much as the opportunity to shape it,” Devanathan urges.