No AI-dea about old Bombay

Sir Pherozeshah Mehta and Lady Flora discuss their shocking discoveries while using AI-generated prompts. Illustration/Uday Mohite

Sir Pheroze was still a novice but enjoyed navigating his new laptop. For one, he was thrilled that it was lightweight, unlike the volumes of files that he lugged around during his Bombay High Court days, and while at the Municipal Corporation. But he was a far way off in terms of acing it, as was evident when he met Lady Flora along the steps of the Asiatic Society. She was back from a long break to the Isle of Portland, in the United Kingdom. It was her birthplace - the marble used to sculpt her was quarried from there, back in the day. "It's lovely to return to my roots, to explore its geography and dramatic landforms," she elaborated.

"All this sounds really nice. I never knew of Portland's significance. But dare I seek help from these new tools that splash up on the screen while browsing through the Internet, especially if I'm keen to learn more about its historicity!" he sighed. Lady Flora was surprised. For two reasons - firstly, she was impressed by Sir PM's familiarity with Internet lingo, and using the laptop, it was her birthday gift before leaving for Portland. Secondly, she wondered why he doubted its usage, especially related to their favourite subject - history.

"I was getting a hang of this handy device, but little did I realise that it would drag me down a rabbit hole. It was challenging enough to figure the ins and outs of Google, but these new tools, called Artificial Intelligence - AI, in short, and ChatGPT are quite a handful, tempting me with all kinds of suggestions with some inexplicable and often-unrelated conclusions. At first, I thought aapro JRD's Air-India had something to do with it, given the similar abbreviated name," he revealed, sheepishly, adding, "The aberration appeared when I was helping a friend with research about our Irani cafés. Imagine my surprise as I searched for the year when the iconic Bastani & Co had shuttered; this ‘magic' engine threw up the name of a similar-sounding city-based hospitality brand linked to a Bollywood film star!" Sir PM's eyes widened as he narrated this episode, "Luckily, I knew this was untrue. Cousin Khorshed helped me out with the correct answer. But I am befuddled at the level of ambiguity and factually disconnected information that is being churned out, confusing the user. This dissemination of incorrect information on a large, unchecked scale, at least as far as old Bombay's history goes, is disturbing. I've decided to return to my reliable bookshelf in such matters."

Lady Flora too seemed to have had an ‘episode'. "Now that you mention it, I recall reaching a near-dead end while seeking background information about a critical milestone in our city's theatre timeline. It was amusing, almost, to see the wild goose chase it sent me on until I realised something wasn't right. Pheroze, this is a common issue that users will face, especially those who are unfamiliar with the subject. They will be left to believe that this is the final truth, simply because of AI's limited understanding of the subject; old Bombay being the case in point here."

Sir PM summed it up, "I fear that erroneous facts about our city's past are becoming increasingly and easily available. This becomes the starting point to infest the digital universe with a cesspool of misinformation. Worse, few and only those curious enough to smell a rat will bother to cross-check its veracity." Lady Flora winked, "Let's hope these faceless new historians don't degrade us as a mere fountain and a statue."

mid-day's Features Editor Fiona Fernandez relishes the city's sights, sounds, smells and stones...wherever the ink and the inclination takes her. She tweets @bombayana
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