A common person generally does not know what they come to know, or what they are made to know. Knowledge, as we typically understand it, appears benign—or even highly useful. Yet what passes as knowledge is often a multipurpose instrument to mould people’s minds to ends that may not serve the common good, or even the good of the individual concerned. For instance, the colonial regime used knowledge itself to legitimise its rule. It can make something good appear bad, and something bad seem good. Pharmaceutical companies have done the same. Those who invented the cigarette marketed it as beneficial to health, concealing the fact that it was a serious health hazard. The same pattern can be seen in every walk of life.
We must understand knowledge in a way that serves humanity. Knowledge is not a thing, though it is abstract, yet it is often treated as if it were. Real knowledge is lived knowledge. It is being aware of oneself and one’s surroundings, and seeing things objectively, to remove what hinders the good life and promote what enables it. Knowledge should not take one away from lived reality. It is not for mindless consumption but for mindful engagement. People know, decide, reflect, and practise—and thus become truly knowledgeable.AI is a threat to human beings only if we approach knowledge as it is generally done. Knowledge is what we own, not what owns us.
Niraj Kumar Jha
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