We live in a world that is steered by technology. It’s almost fair to say that we live, eat, and breathe apps on our smartphones. Ordering food, shopping, or even booking a cab were once such tedious tasks — today, the transition from a ‘physical’ to a ‘digital’ experience is quite seamless. This has only become a reality due to the increased proliferation of new-age tech like artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML). What’s also interesting is how their use cases are also evolving – now, who would have thought that AI could possibly author a book? Sounds unbelievable, right? But, here it is. Presenting to you, Bridging the AI gap – which has been completely penned by AI algorithms trained by Indian startup, Fluid AI.  

So, what is it that went behind this creation? Were there any challenges that the startup came across? Most importantly, what is it that Fluid AI really does and what sets it apart? Jibu Elias — Research & Content Head at IndiaAI caught up with Abhinav Aggarwal — Co-founder at Fluid AI to understand this in detail. 

The journey of Fluid AI  

“We have had quite an interesting journey,” shared Aggarwal, recalling how their singular goal has been starkly different from others. Fluid AI essentially helps large organizations create value from their conversational AI investments – the returns can be anywhere between 10x and 50x. It was their win at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in 2012, where Abhinav and his brother Raghav, both business graduates, realized their coding capabilities. Even though they enrolled in management schools later, they dropped out in no time and worked towards building something in this arena. Their decision led to an exciting trajectory –  Fluid AI today boasts an impressive portfolio of clients, including MasterCard and Bank of America; they were also behind Warren Buffett’s AI chatbot.  

“Our vision has always been to be the first company in the world to pass the Turing test. As most people know, Turing was the father of AI. Here’s what we are trying to do – say you are chatting with someone on text, and if you believe you are speaking with a human (even if it’s a machine), then that machine has cleared the Turing test,” he said, adding that the day this happens, the way we interact with technology will change forever.  

Currently, Fluid AI provides chatbot solutions that one can interact with over multitudes of channels. They help large organizations increase revenues or reduce costs, without having to hire people. Here, they tap into the power of automated conversations with customers, thereby also making it a quick experience. 

“We also provide a lot of our language deck, which is something that our book uses too. We have been developing some amazing algorithms in-house that have the ability to work with unstructured data at scale. So, that’s another big area,” says Aggarwal, who has also been featured by Forbes magazine along with his brother. 

How the AI-authored book came to life

During the chat, Aggarwal rightly pointed out that most people have great expectations from AI, since they have heard much about its prowess. It’s also that their experience of AI is associated with world-class organizations like Google or Amazon. But the reality is that this technology is quite complex to manage and wrap your head around. 

“I think so many folks would come to us, and we figured that Fluid AI has a much higher success rate than others. Several tech leaders and CTOs would question us on how we are making AI implementation successful, and how we drive value through AI? This prompted us to take the step to share back with the community what we had learned over the years. That’s when we thought, who better to ask than AI itself?,” he said. 

This is how the idea behind the book came about. For most people, it is still a matter of disbelief that AI has written the book; others can’t fathom that it has turned into a bestseller, and is competing with real authors. Aggarwal is soaking in all the attention – feeling the gush of excitement on what’s more in store. 

However exciting the journey may be, there are also concerns. It was a similar trope for Fluid AI. Previously, the founders had a vision that a part of the content will be written by AI – but at the speed at which the field is innovating, they believe that 75-80% of the content we read and consume will be written by AI in 2023. But if most of the work will be done by AI, where will the human element feature? 

“What we believe is that a lot of content is going to be written by AI, but guided and driven by human thought. You give AI a series of questions or thoughts and it can replicate your writing style. It is particularly helpful for those who don’t have the ability to express themselves, but have creativity within them. It puts them on a level-playing field with the others,” he added, sharing that while putting together the book, they asked the AI algorithm to list out key areas that it wanted to speak about.  

Dealing with copyright and patents

There are many individuals who are worried that AI is replicating their artistic style because it is trained in a certain way. On the other hand, there are a few who are trying to ensure that AI becomes an inventor. Aggarwal, too, headed to several offices to get the book copyrighted and a few accepted it; others refused to make AI a copyright holder. 

“But I feel that as creators and journalists, your role will continue to be important. If you go back in time, when the camera was invented – many people believed there would be no space for artists. But then two things happened – there was a traditional form of art, which was created by humans. The other was dependent on cameras. I believe the same is going to happen with AI writing and it’s going to be an art. It will be more like a challenge to create something amazing. 

Machine collaboration is what will be that new art form,” he shared.

Future forecast 

The space of generative and conversational AI is moving forward rapidly, which is why Aggarwal believes that the interfaces will certainly change. “This whole concept of UI screens, buttons and the way you interact with your phone and computer will be very different. There was a whole revolution when Nokias and Blackberries were dominant, but the iPhone came and changed mobile phones. A new revolution will emerge again – imagine if a non tech-savvy person could just tell their phone to do things and it will happen. That is going to be the future,” he concluded.