The lack of safety guardrails in AI

Can you imagine buying a piece of furniture where the manufacturer says, "Look, you COULD fall off this thing, so please use it carefully."
Would you buy a gas stove that says, "Well, I COULD leak, so please use me carefully and watch out for gas leaks."
Would a company order simple ball bearings that do not pass quality tests?

No, we cannot imagine commercial release of unsafe products.
Except, AI.

In response to a teen suicide, Open AI decides to take age proof from users.

But, IF a chatbot is encouraging thoughts of self-harm and suicide, does the age of the user matter?

Open AI says it will try to inform parents and failing that, will inform law enforcement. Google and Meta already do that in many countries - inform law enforcement when a suicide is imminent. That should have been in the core design!

Why should any company be able to release potentially unsafe products to any user category?

And I am left wondering.. how did an entire industry bypass both quality and safety requirements?

Ganpati 2025

The most amazing thing happened. 

I cld not start packing for the US for some reason. 

One day, I went and got a small Ganpati to take to the US. As soon as that Ganpati reached the house, I was able to pack. 

Now, all I had here was Ganpati and one janeu. 

One of the things I had packed was one of my terracotta figurines ka set. It was a set of costumes of India. I noticed that the box was mislabelled as "God". 

On reaching the US, one of the figurines was broken. Which meant i could not pass it on as a gift. 

Today, while setting up Ganesha, I realised that the figurines are the perfect accompaniment to the Ganpati. I used them to create some decoration. 

A notebook I had carried became the backdrop. 

To say that my energy has completely shifted since Ganpati came is an understatement. 

Ishaan came to meet, which is very unlike him. 

i just had to record this. 

How to conduct a User Persona Workshop/How to create user personas

"The customer is not an idiot. The customer is your wife." - David Oglivy. 

To me, this quote is the most powerful lesson in creating user personas. 

I have always used this as the starting line in User Persona workshops, and immediately, the user becomes a real person. A stereotype, ridden with the disadvantage of a single story, but a real, living person.  nonetheless. 

Step 1 

Think of the user. Visualise them in your head. Is it a male or a female? How old are they? How tall? Are the eyes deepset or wide apart? Is the brow furrowed? What do they wear? Where do they shop for groceries? How educated are they? Do they carry themselves with confidence or diffidence? Large family or small? Are they single, committed, married? Do they have children? How many? 

Step 2 

What drives them? What motivates them? What are they indifferent to? What do they loathe? 

Step 3 

Why are they connecting with your product? What's in it for them? Are they being: 

Employed? 

Promoted? 

Reduced in importance? 

Role eliminated? 

because of your product? 

What is this product doing for them? 

What will this product do to them?

Step 4 

How do they like to interact with technology? When they have to see the time, do they look at their wrist or reach for their phone? When they need some information, do they use ChatGPT or Google? When they have to jump from field to field, do they use the tab button on the keypad, or do they use their mouse? 

(If you have real observation data here, that is great. Otherwise, make reasonable assumptions) 

Step 5 

If they were in a jam, what would they do? Would they run away from the situation? Would they try to break the queue and do whatever it takes? Would they wait and comply? Would they be resilient or escapist? 

Note: This is an important question. This tells us the level of security we need to build in the system Even though most apps today are ZTA, ingeniously unethical users think of each security measure as a challenge in Takeshi's castle. So, it is important to know what our users would do if they had a work situation that the system does not address. 

Step 6 

What should you absolutely NOT do with this person? What kind of behaviour would they just not be ok with? 

Note: Keep this in the chart. We reuse this during user evangelisation / training in addition to using this during system workflow and screen design. 

How to conduct the workshop 

1. This workshop is facilitated by the consultant but all inputs are from the users. The closer to the ground it is, the better. 

2. Ask the questions in order. Give people time to respond. Imagine. Discuss. Visualise. Describe. 

3. Create a chart at the end of each user type and then move on to the next. If you can, insert a simple ritual like water break between two persona discussions. This is like smelling the coffee between sampling two perfumes - a natural break that prevents the spillover bias. 

Why do we read the news?

When i come to a new place, i pick up the newspaper very diligently. Partly because i can't have the morning chai without a newspaper, and partly because the newspaper tells us a lot about the society. The news that get TRP tell us a lot about the viewers. 

But this morning, a different thought came to my head - universally, the quality of news is questionable at best and abysmal, realistically speaking. 

So, why do people still watch news? Why do we still read fiction and propaganda labelled "news"? 

I think.. the reason is that somewhere, reading news makes us feel better about ourselves. Perhaps it makes us feel that we are more "aware", more "involved" in daily citizenship. Never mind that our news is the latest update from some celebrity child and some propaganda related to a complete non-issue that has found 4,203 petitions signed within 24 hours by "concerned citizens." 

 

Doctors often complain that their patients do not follow their advice at all. They self-medicate, or abandon treatment mid-way. 

Surprisingly, it's not just the underprivileged or the uneducated who abandon treatment. Well-educated patients with means and education also do not follow the doctor's instructions. 

Many 

Counting to twenty

 Ishaan asks me to count his reps as he exercises.

Just to irritate him, every day, i count to twenty in a different language. Predictably, he gets irritated. And warns me: If you want to be in my exercise room, you will only count in English or Hindi.

Insights you get while counting to twenty in English and Hindi.

In English, scores of something is a lot of something.

In Hindi, सैकड़ों means a lot of something.

The meaning of these words:

Score: 20

सैकड़ा: 20

In both these languages, "a lot of" is a multiple of 20. Not ten. Not 100. 20.

Why??

Thoughts on Project Management

Today, during a session on understanding a project, I shared this format which the class loved. 

To understand all the dimensions of a project, just go over the 7 vibhaktis of Sanskrit 

Karta ne - कर्ता  ने - Who is doing this project? 

Karm Ko - कर्म को - Exactly WHAT do we want done? 

Karn se - करण से/के द्वारा - What are the tools/tech platforms that we will use to deliver this project? 

Sampradan ke liye - संप्रदान के लिए  - For whom is the project being done? (End users and key stakeholders) 

Apadaan se prithak - अपादान से पृथक -   Who are the people/entities who will lose some ground/role after this project goes live? Who will be alienated? 

Sambandh Ka, Ke, Ki - संबंध का, के, की - All related entities that share an interface/data exchange with the project. 

Adhikaran Mein/par - अधिकरण में/पर - What all will this project encompass? What business processes does it own? 

We created a 360-degree view of the project using this thought process and it was a huge success, allowing us to identify our stakeholders and our scope in a fun way.