When I described at a dining table Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a postcolonial tool, it seemed to the eyes of listeners, “Are you serious?” AI is vastly seen as an assistant to humans, and it will give us some facilities so that our lives will be easier than earlier. Yes! Artificial intelligence works for humans. In stories, we see that inert objects are working at the command of a master. In the story of Aladdin, a magic carpet is carrying Aladdin and his girl friend to places where they like to go. In other stories, a pair of shoes carries a person, and a piece of cloth can make someone invisible. Nils Nilsson saw the root of AI in literature, and he referred in his book, The Quest for Artificial Intelligence to Hephaistos, the lame blacksmith god from Homer’s Iliad, constructed the self-propelled chairs called “tripods" and “golden attendants" to help him get around. Nilsson also mentioned the Greek myth, Metamorphoses, “Pygmalian sculpts an ivory statue of a beautiful maiden, Galatea, which Venus brings to life.”
Thus, AI has been welcomed throughout history since its infancy. People in general wish to have some added luxuries at cheap prices while they are getting adapted to technological products. They are using machines at offices, at home, in markets, or anywhere else as symbols of progress. People are already dependent on AI for their daily calendar, appointments, meetings, office work, documentation, research work, data analysis, industrial production, teaching, learning, online business, product delivery, space science, and many more. There is nothing wrong with accepting new facilities in life. While they are losing their own capacity to the machines. Previously, computing technology was not synonymous with AI, but today many consider machines to be products of AI. They considered the first intelligent machine to be a washing machine with the power to identify the capabilities of hot, cold, and warm water. Previously, a messenger service was thought to be a service for communications, but now a messenger service is AI-powered. Everything in computing technology is connected to AI.
AI has some rules that say it will not hurt humans. Nilsson writes, “A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” AI is far above the rules in the visions of many scientists. The AI planners had some thoughts in their minds that meant the subjugation of humans to machines and a new world order. Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, envisioned, “I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.” Nowadays, AI has been changing rapidly its paths and is going beyond the grasp of common human beings, whom AI is going to supersede in every way.
In colonialism, a nation subjugates another nation and transfers their language and culture. Sometimes, the colonizers come with promises and dreams and create consent in the colonized nation. That happened in Bengal in 1835. Colonial people in Bangladesh once saw a prospect in European education, and they threw away Sanskrit, Persian, or even communal education systems to embrace the greater good in English education. The history before and after 1835 in Bengal witnessed the truth. People in elitist societies welcomed the changes. It was their thought in the development and progress. After two hundred years, parents still believe English is the best for children, and Bangla has lagged behind. After 1947, the Indian subcontinent became independent, and in the 1950s, AI started to grow, and it has been infiltrating public life for more than 70 years. AI in 2023 has already created consent among upper-class people who can afford the technology. AI has been creating a new world order. This present consent for AI and the previous consent for English are both submissions to the colonial powers.