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Dear Reader,
The rise of AI, and the threat its misuse poses, presents a vicious challenge to democracy. The potential to manipulate critical elections -- a spate of which are scheduled this year in Mexico, South Africa, the United States and India -- cannot be underplayed.
In response to the threats, AI companies like OpenAI, have announced plans to call out deep fakes, encourage a transparent media ecosystem, and bolster accurate information on the polls and related aspects. The MediaNama examines why this effort by AI companies is critical, and looks at what other AI companies are doing to prevent deep fakes and disinformation from maliciously intervening in the electoral process.
Another threat to our lives and livelihoods comes from the ever-escalating climate change, the realities of which are writ large, this time in Kashmir’s Gulmarg. As the Mojo Story reports, an unprecedented and radical spell of weather has turned the usually snowy blanket to dry, forlorn slopes, with an unnerving 79 per cent deficit in rainfall. The implications for tourism, agriculture and the ecology are forbidding.
In the recent past, the government has been pushing the adoption of millet farming as millets are drought resistant, need a relatively lesser quantity of fertilisers and are considered a healthier alternative to rice and wheat.
However, the Baiga tribe in the Dindori district, Madhya Pradesh, who traditionally cultivated and consumed millet, are being pushed to grow rice and wheat on the promise of better productivity. A change, मैं भी भारत reports, that is being resisted by the tribes, as they fear losing both their health and their tradition.
While Swacch Bharath and the quest for a clean India have been much sung and heralded, justifiably so, it defies the reality on the ground. Abysmal outlays and the utter apathy of the elected representatives to the ‘clean India’ movement means, as The India Forum explains, that the country’s “waste management processes are in a mess.”
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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