“Know that all beautiful, glorious, and mighty creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 10.41)

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यद्यद्विभूतिमत्सत्त्वं श्रीमदूर्जितमेव वा ।
तत्तदेवावगच्छ त्वं मम तेजोऽशसम्भवम् ॥

yadyadvibhūtimatsattvaṃ śrīmadūrjitameva vā ।
tattadevāvagaccha tvaṃ mama tejo’śasambhavam ॥

According to the Vedic understanding, there is a single source to everything. Though the commonly depicted images associated with the culture may show multiple gods, with varieties in the religious traditions dispersed across the different regions, the objective is still always one. A person may be unaware, but the boons delivered by their object of worship must first be sanctioned by the original source.

येऽप्यन्यदेवताभक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विता: ।
तेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ॥

ye ’py anya-devatā-bhaktā
yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ
te ’pi mām eva kaunteya
yajanty avidhi-pūrvakam

“Whatever a man may sacrifice to other gods, O son of Kunti, is really meant for Me alone, but it is offered without true understanding.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.23)

That source is able to generate. If we briefly consider the matter, we realize that the ability to generate is beyond imagination. Everything that we have encountered so far in life. Both the seen and the unseen. That which we have witnessed and also that which we have only heard about.

The single source is responsible for everything. That source is the chief eternal responsible for supporting and sustaining so many other eternals. He is the one original eternal while we are sparks from Him. There is the great eternal, who is independent, and there are the many not as great eternals, who are independent to some degree but also dependent.

This means that it is not surprising to find defects when the dependent eternals try to imitate the chief eternal. It only makes sense that the pursuits will flow in that direction. If one person can create amazing content in literature, why should not others try the same?

If one person has skill in composing music, in writing screenplays, or in drawing pictures, others can also see how they compare in these areas. Moreover, there is always technology to give an assist. Why work harder when you can work smarter?

In recent times, there is the boon of artificial intelligence. If we are stuck in a rut, unable to think of new ideas for content, we can ask artificial intelligence for help. Input a few parameters and in a matter of moments we have something that can be used.

Whether the content is good or not, someone else will be the judge. For instance, AI may be able to produce an audio narration of a particular set of written words, but others are quick to point out the flaws. The narrator, the robot-type voice, is unable to give the proper pronunciation to words outside of its input language. Sanskrit may present difficulties, and the resulting sounds elicit chuckles, irritation, and exasperation from the person listening.

This is because there are limitations to AI. If we study the commonly identified limitations, we can compare against the original source of the different energies, both spiritual and material. The honest person ends up with even greater appreciation for that chief eternal.

1. Limited creativity

AI could never produce something as great as Mozart or Beethoven. These are individuals unique to the history of the world. Gifted with amazing ability in composition, it is their works which serve as the basis for any future output generated by a computer. In other words, it is a human being who serves as the input to any generative model.

As the model can only use what has been recorded thus far, there is limitation in creativity. When more people appear in this world, as they use their amazing intelligence embedded within to produce new forms of art, the models can then expand upon the potential for creation.

सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो
मत्तः स्मृतिर् ज्ञानम् अपोहनं च
वेदैश् च सर्वैर् अहम् एव वेद्यो
वेदान्त-कृद् वेद-विद् एव चाहम्

sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo
mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham

“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.15)

2. Bias

The models have to be biased. There is no way around it. If we are trying to generate online copy for a specific area of commercial products, it only makes sense that the models will factor popularity into the output. That is to say, the existing products which have a greater amount of content already available are more likely to be represented in whatever the “new” output is.

3. Limited application

The models have to be trained. There needs to be sufficient material to serve as an input. If there is not much to go off, what can the computer really do? It only operates on what is fed into it. As more time passes, as the amount of potential input increases, the models can widen their scope of application.

4. Resource intensive

Try to merely search through millions of printed documents. The process is not easy. A computer must store everything properly. This is the beginning. There is likely some indexing involved. When the search finds matches, it must also return a location so that the end-user can then navigate to the material.

All this means that there will be a reliance on resources. The more the better. The greater the computing power, the more the models can process in a timely fashion. On the other side, when resources are limited, the machines cannot do as much. It is like trying to run a marathon after having fasted for an entire week.

5. Ethical concerns

Known as a “deep fake,” AI can be used to imitate someone else, without their knowledge or consent. AI can generate spam email messages that look almost identical to what an authorized provider might send. Except the purpose is nefarious. The end-goal is to fool the end-user, to make them think something is true when it is not.

As His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, since the beginning of time there have been people trying to imitate God. They have claimed to be the Supreme Lord. This occurred even during the time of the manifest lila of Shri Krishna.

“The story of King Paundraka is very interesting because there have always been many rascals and fools who have considered themselves to be God. Even in the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, there was such a foolish person. His name was Paundraka, and he wanted to declare himself to be God. While Lord Balarama was absent in Vrindavana, this King Paundraka, the King of the Karusha province, being foolish and puffed up, sent a messenger to Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and King Paundraka directly challenged Krishna through the messenger, who stated that Paundraka, and not Krishna, was Vasudeva.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 2, Ch 11)

In line with the defects of generative AI, the pretenders are always limited. They breach ethics in the worst possible way, to try to cheat people on the most important issue of an existence: their link to genuine spiritual life.

These limitations are not present in the original source, who is known as Krishna. He is also Vishnu, who is known to simply lie down and generate universes through His breathing. This image symbolizes the least resource intensive work, with the greatest accompanying creativity. There is inherently no bias, because the same Vishnu expands as Supersoul, to take the role of all-pervading witness who accompanies each and every living being.

Vishnu is wishing well to every person, whether they are legitimate in their presentation or pretending to be the son of Vasudeva. What Vishnu creates has applicability to every individual, as evidenced in the sunlight, the water dropped by the clouds, the air flowing through space, and the knowledge found in sacred texts like Bhagavad-gita and Shrimad Bhagavatam.

In Closing:

Universal benevolence to tell,
Since wishing everyone well.

Amazing output generating,
Without bias demonstrating.

From sun temperature to maintain,
Water and air life to sustain.

Never a computer could do the same,
That which from Vishnu came.

Categories: the five

Tags: artificial intelligence, creation, generative ai, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, vishnu