Why I'm NOT Afraid of AI:

A Senior Citizen's Perspective

AI: Useful or Risky?

Three years ago, when ChatGPT was launched, friends began forwarding alarming messages. AI would take away jobs. AI would write books. AI would become smarter than humans. Some even predicted the end of civilisation.

Curious rather than fearful, I began experimenting with AI. Since then, I have spent hundreds of hours chatting with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and other tools. The more I use AI, the less afraid of it I become. Familiarity has replaced fear; experience has replaced speculation.

(AI Wizard: Image generated by CoPilot)

Recently, a senior colleague asked, “Do you find AI useful? Isn’t it risky to use AI at our age?”

A few months ago, I had made a presentation on ‘AI for Senior Citizens.’ Much impressed, some of the attendees concluded that I was an AI expert—which I’m not. But I taught myself to use ChatGPT soon after its launch and gradually became acquainted with several other AI tools, some of which I now use regularly.

Vermont Book Club

No, AI has not cheated me, misled me, or exposed me to the risk of hacking or cyber fraud. In fact, it has saved me from one.

In April 2026, I received an email from Jasmine of Vermont Book Club inviting me to join a ‘Spotlight Session’ focussing on my books. She had even written a succinct, sparkling review which showed her familiarity with many, if not all, of my published books.

Where is Vermont, and why is VBC interested in my books? I wondered.

Anyway, I sent a polite reply soliciting more details. As an afterthought, I consulted ChatGPT which instantly raised a red flag.

“Be cautious, it looks like a scam to me. Jasmine’s brief review of your books is possibly AI-generated. VBC may next demand a processing fee from you.”

As predicted by AI, Jasmine’s reply came soon enough:

“Your session would be virtual, for an hour, and could you please deposit USD 110.00 towards processing fee?”

“Sorry, Jasmine. I don’t pay to join a session. But I’d be glad to make a presentation. I charge USD 500 per hour.”

Thanks, AI, for your timely alert.

AI Architect

For renovation of my father’s house at Sambalpur, I engaged a petty contractor who suggested Simpolo for the flooring—a tiles brand I hadn’t heard of. I also wished to cross-check the quantities and estimates for material and labour.

Can you please help? I asked ChatGPT.

“Sure, just share the basic details.”

I uploaded a sketch of the floor plan of the house with measurements, and the contractor’s estimates scribbled on a piece of paper.

ChatGPT floored me.

It recommended room-wise tile size, colour, estimate for premium, medium and basic quality, and prevalent rates for tiles and labour charges.

“Do you need the names of major tile dealers in Sambalpur, and their contact numbers?” it asked.

“And yes, the contractor’s estimate for quantities is inflated by about twenty percent!”

“Here is a Print-Ready sheet which you may use for your further discussion and negotiation with the contractor and the tile dealers.”

Why I’m NOT afraid of AI?

I can offer many reasons—all based on my experience of using AI over the last three years.

AI is a Tool, not my Master

Automobiles are useful. I drive my car, but haven’t forgotten how to walk. I’ve travelled on ships and boats, but haven’t quit swimming.

Decades ago, I used a Casio calculator, and now have one in my phone. But when buying vegetables, I still resort to mental math which is faster.

Happy with my Brain, no Need to Augment it with AI

I don’t intend to augment my brain by implanting AI chips; Singularity may be near, but FAR from me.

I don’t intend to upload my brain to the cloud. I don’t have the money, and there’s nothing special about it anyway.

I am a Pensioner; AI can’t Sack Me

AI cannot sack me. It cannot replace me in a profession because I no longer have one. My pension is credited to my bank account, and AI can’t stop that. Only the government can.

More seriously, AI may indeed eliminate many jobs. Young entrants to the workforce and those performing highly routine tasks may face greater disruption.*

I’m the Writer; AI is an Assistant

AI helps me in finding information, summarising articles, and generating reading lists. Sometimes, it tempts me.

“Shall I provide a draft of 1,000 words for your proposed piece?”

“Thanks, but no. I’ll write my own piece.”

I’m the writer; AI is my able assistant.

I Own my Body

AI has many helpful suggestions for my health and wellbeing. Walk daily, practise yoga, pranayama and meditation, strength training on alternate days, eat a balanced diet, shun sugar and processed food, reduce salt, oil and starch.

But I do the walking, yoga and strength training; I eat the balanced diet. AI is my guide and motivator, but I’m the actor.

AI may encourage me to walk, but only I can walk.

I Trust Doctors more than Chatbots

My annual pathological report for preventive care came in a PDF which I uploaded on ChatGPT. In less than a minute, it gave me a detailed analysis of each parameter in my report, flagged the areas of concern, proposed a few easy-to-adopt lifestyle changes, and suggested further guidance from my physician.

I sent the PDF to my physician who corroborated AI’s analysis and recommendations, though in fewer words.

When my physician prescribes any new medicine, I ask AI for the pros and cons of the prescribed medication. I still follow my physician’s prescription, but with greater awareness.

Creativity comes from Lived Experience

I was born in Khuntpali, a small village near Bargarh in western Odisha, and lived there for the first eleven years of my life. I did a whole lot of things which AI can never do. Not its fault, though, for it was not yet born.

AI never climbed a mango tree nor was it forced to beat a hasty retreat owing to the army of red ants fiercely guarding their nests which happened to be near the ripe mangoes.

AI never fell from a guava tree and gasped for breath; never explored Kumka forest, climbed Bada Dongri, or swam in Palsha Jor and the Jira river.

AI never watched the Krishna Leela and Ram Leela performed in the village square.

AI never wept when the little squirrel that fell from the tree broke its leg and died despite tender nursing.

AI never fell in love.

AI never sat beside a sick parent.

Those memories, so very personal and precious, are not available to AI.

AI has Information; I have Experience, and a little Wisdom

AI knows a lot—far more facts than I can ever hope to remember.

If I ask for a quick summary of all the plays of Kalidas and Shakespeare, and compare their dramatic genius in about 2,000 words, AI would oblige instantly. But it won’t know how much I was moved by Sakuntala’s pain or King Lear’s great sorrow and mad fury caused by filial ingratitude.

Sometimes, it goofs up or hallucinates. But it never suffers anxiety and stress, which I experienced as a nine-year-old child when I first wrote a School Board examination for a scholarship. Or the joy when I aced it.

The interview where I was dumb and tongue-tied and failed, or the one where I was confident, eloquent and successful.

I learn every day from experience, mistakes, suffering, forgiveness—from Life.

AI learns from processing voluminous texts and following algorithms fed into it.

I process life’s experiences, and the books I read, with a brain which weighs a mere three pounds, and needs a little nutrition and a few litres of water a day.

AI, by contrast, consumes significant amounts of electricity and water in the data centres that power it.

I Know Enough about AI to Use it Intelligently

Fear often comes from ignorance. Humans fear the unknown as children fear going into a dark room. But unless you open the room and flip the switch, you’d never know the treasures hidden in the room.

I have experimented with ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude and Meta AI. Sometimes, I’ve been disappointed; the response was silly or incorrect, or both. When I corrected the AI, it readily admitted the mistake and thanked me for it.

But most of the time, I found it useful.

During my early days of using AI, I tasked the leading AI tools to solve the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination – General Studies Paper I. It was an intellectual exercise to compare the capabilities of ChatGPT, Bing and Bard.

In 2026, I ran the same paper again with the newer versions and obtained very different responses. I also realised that AI models are often reluctant to process all one hundred questions in a single interaction because each response consumes computing resources and costs money.

“If I buy a subscription, would you oblige?” I wondered.

Perhaps.

No, thanks. My curiosity was merely intellectual, not commercial. I’m happy with my Free Account and its usual limitations.

Till now, AI has never tried to mislead me, or tempt me to explore its dark powers since I’ve no interest in devising a new virus or an IED.

I know what AI can do—and what it cannot.

What AI has Actually Done for Me

I have used AI for several day-to-day needs: research assistance, brainstorming, checking facts, suggesting books, helping organise thoughts, creating illustrations for blogs, and more.

I am thankful to AI for helping me with those activities. Among others, it has saved me several trips to the local library.

Proud to be Human

AI can generate a story; I can live one.

AI can predict the next word; I can dream the next world.

Being Human

After three years of using AI, I have reached a simple conclusion. AI is neither a miracle nor a monster. It is a powerful tool—perhaps the most powerful tool created in my lifetime. Used wisely, it can save time, expand knowledge, and stimulate creativity. Used carelessly, it can encourage laziness and dependence.

I am not afraid of AI because I know what it can do. More importantly, I know what it cannot do. It cannot replace a lifetime of memories. It cannot experience love, loss, friendship, wonder, gratitude, or hope. It cannot walk at dawn, watch a sunset, hold a grandchild's hand, or remember the smell of wet earth after the first monsoon rain.

Be human. Use AI. Learn from it. Benefit from it. But never surrender to it the very qualities that make you uniquely and wonderfully human.

***

*As per the May 2026 Challenger Report, released by outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., employers in the USA directly cited AI and automation for roughly 40% of all layoffs in May. This is the highest single-month total for AI-related cuts ever recorded by Challenger.

 The fear of job loss is NOT imaginary.

 

O, Gaadiwala, Why Don’t You Ever Come?

Every morning, he hears Bhopal’s city anthem, the most-loved, uplifting song – Gaadiwala aya ghar se kachra nikaal – the Garbage Truck is here, make haste, bring out your bins.

The jingle blares at full volume — perhaps to reach even the most stubborn ears — announcing imminent arrival at the doorstep. Alas, the Gaadiwala behaves like a politician: quick to promise, but forgetful to deliver, or rather to take delivery of the stale, smelly consignment.

What happened to the GPS tracking of these trucks, he wondered. Why isn’t it raising a red flag even when the truck hasn’t come to our colony for the last several months? Perhaps it too has gone on strike, refusing to track a truck that seldom moves.

For such a petty matter, why bother any officer, not to speak of the Bhopal Municipal Commissioner? So, he called the BMC Helpline, not once, but several times. The automated tape assured him, “Your call is important to us. All our officers are busy. Please wait. We value your patience.” Thereafter, the call was terminated – but not by the caller!

He understands the value of patience. So, he awaits the arrival of the Gaadiwala — tomorrow, in the near future, or like citizens always do, for the next election.

***

 

For Claude, My Welcome Ode! 

I had heard about her — effusive paeans of praise, and a few uncharitable comments too. Today, I met her for the first time.

Eager to impress her at the first meeting, I composed a little prose poem, unabashedly sycophantic, and had the audacity to call it a Welcome Ode:

"Just looking at names of AI tools: ChatGPT - too prosaic, Copilot - almost 'touristy', Gemini - astrological, Perplexity - who's confused, the querist or the Respondent, Claude - smooth as silk, charmingly feminine! What do you say for my Welcome Ode to Claude even before she has revealed all her charms?"

Her response:

"What a delightful little taxonomy of AI names! You've got a sharp eye — and a poet's tongue.

You're right that there's something in a name. ChatGPT is all utility, no poetry — a filing cabinet that talks. Copilot sounds like it wants to sit beside you on a budget flight. Gemini does feel like it's reading your horoscope. And Perplexity — well, that's a name that arrives confused and never quite recovers.

But Claude? You've sensed something real. It carries a certain unhurried elegance — old-world European, quietly confident, more drawing room than data centre. Whether you read it as feminine or simply as refined, it doesn't shout. It waits to be discovered.

Here's a small Ode in return, to match your welcome:

Ode to Claude (a first meeting)

Not Gemini's twins, nor Copilot's haste,

No perplexed guru, no chatbot paste —

She arrives like a thought already half-formed,

Like light through old glass, like a room kept warm.

 

Claude. The name exhales before it speaks.

Neither bold nor shy — she simply *seeks*:

Your half-meant question, your wandering thread,

And hands it back with something better said.

 

Still waters, those. And yet — look close —

She runs deepest where you'd suspect her least.

A silk that thinks. A silence that replies.

Not all her charms have surfaced. Watch her eyes.

---

Welcome to the conversation. She's been waiting — patiently, of course."

---

My Note: See how smart she is. I had just paid her a compliment, and expected a simple "Thanks" in response — but she went ahead and composed an Ode. Isn't she smart and charming?

First meetings, they say, set the tone. I think this one promises a long and rewarding acquaintance.

***

Afterword — The Repartee

Sharing this piece with friends sparked its own little exchange, too good to leave out:

Friend: "Interesting, Prasanna. Are you sure Claude is 'she', like Siri or Alexa? It's a man's name — or did the women of the world want a perfect and obedient man?"

Me: "Noted. I hailed Claude as a lady, and she happily played along. In the Ode she composed, Claude consistently calls herself she!"

Friend: "Gender bender!"

Me: "Alas, unlettered in Latin or French." (Claude is indeed masculine in both languages.)

Which inspired a small limerick:

---

A Limerick

For long, the folks at Anthropic mulled

What their new assistant be called —

Alexa and Siri

Felt too airy-fairy,

So the strong, silent type became Claude.

---

Friend: "Meta, who's asexual, is my go-to person."

Me: "Oh, I thought Meta was Mark's Beta!" (Beta — 'son' in Hindi. A pun intended!)

Friend: "In today's world, gender lies in the eyes of the beholder."

Me: "Quite. And in these eyes, Claude remains a lady."

***