We All Have AI. So Why Don’t We All Have the Power?
We have ChatGPT.
We have AI writing our emails, making our presentations, creating our images and answering questions we haven’t even finished asking.
Everybody is talking about how intelligent AI is becoming.
And everybody seems to have an opinion about whether it will eventually replace us.
But perhaps we are asking the wrong question.
What if the biggest problem with AI isn’t how intelligent it becomes, but who gets to control that intelligence?
That’s where my conversation with Jibu Elias got interesting.
Jibu is an AI expert and author of The New Divide: Power, Control and the Cost of AI.
And his concern isn’t necessarily the science-fiction version of AI destroying humanity.
It’s something much more immediate.
Who is holding the switch?
We Have Access. But Do We Have Power?
There was a time when the digital divide was fairly straightforward.
Some people had access to technology.
Others didn’t.
Today, almost anybody with an internet connection can open an AI tool and start using it.
Sounds like progress.
And it is.
But Jibu makes an interesting distinction.
Having access to technology is not the same as having the power to shape what that technology does.
Millions of people can use AI.
But how many decide what data trains it?
Who determines what it recommends?
Who sets its boundaries?
Who decides which problems are worth solving?
And who benefits when those decisions are made?
That is the new divide.
Not simply between people who have technology and people who don’t.
Between those who consume intelligence and those who control its direction.
This question of who controls AI becomes even more important when we consider how artificial intelligence could influence decisions that affect people’s lives. In the debate around AI in the Indian judiciary, for instance, the real question isn’t simply what AI can do, but how its reasoning, accountability and limitations should be governed.
India Is an Elephant That Doesn’t Know Its Strength
We often describe India as a giant.
A giant economy.
A giant market.
A giant opportunity.
But Jibu uses an interesting analogy.
An elephant doesn’t always recognise its own strength.
And perhaps India has a similar problem.
We have an enormous market, talent, developers and users.
Global technology companies want access to that market.
So why do we sometimes behave as though we are the ones asking for permission?
Why shouldn’t the companies seeking access to Indian consumers have to respond to India’s priorities?
Of course, market size alone doesn’t make a country technologically independent.
Building foundational technology, research capabilities, infrastructure and strong institutions matters too. India’s opportunity to develop its own AI applications and compete in the global technology landscape is also explored in India’s next opportunity in AI applications.
But the larger question remains.
Are we building the future of AI, or are we simply becoming one of its largest customer bases?
The AI Business Is Not Always What It Looks Like
There is another interesting side to the AI revolution.
The business of selling AI.
Every company seems to be AI-powered.
Every startup has an AI story.
Every pitch deck promises to transform something.
Sometimes the technology is genuinely extraordinary.
Sometimes the marketing is doing rather more work than the technology.
During our conversation, we discuss cases such as Builder.ai and the questions they raise about automation, human labour and the promises companies make.
Because attaching AI to a business doesn’t automatically make it innovative.
And raising money doesn’t automatically mean you have built something useful.
The real question is much less glamorous.
What problem are you actually solving?
Can AI Understand Us Better Than Humans?
Now comes the slightly uncomfortable part.
We like to believe that certain qualities make humans irreplaceable.
Creativity.
Judgement.
Empathy.
But what exactly do we mean by empathy?
Is it feeling another person’s pain?
Or is it being able to recognise that pain and respond in a way that makes them feel understood?
Because if it is the second, AI is already becoming remarkably good at producing those responses.
That doesn’t establish that AI actually feels empathy.
But it does raise a difficult question.
If somebody feels understood by an AI, does it matter that the AI doesn’t feel anything?
And where should we draw the line between a helpful tool and a substitute for human relationships or professional care?
AI Can Do the Work. But Who Will Learn the Work?
We talk a lot about AI replacing jobs.
And usually, the conversation becomes a numbers game.
How many jobs will disappear?
How many new ones will be created?
Which industries will change first?
But there is a problem hiding underneath.
Think about how people become experts.
A junior writer becomes a senior writer by writing.
A young programmer becomes an experienced programmer by solving problems.
People develop judgement by doing the work, making mistakes and learning from them.
Now imagine AI takes over much of that entry-level work.
Wonderful for productivity.
But where will the next generation of experts come from?
If we automate the first step of learning, who gets to reach the last step of expertise?
That may be one of the most important questions employers and educators need to answer.
We Wanted AI to Make Life Easier. So What Happens Next?
There is a wonderful irony in the way AI is developing.
We imagined machines would take care of the boring things.
And humans would have more time to create, think, write and enjoy life.
Instead, AI can write poetry while we are still doing the laundry.
Not quite the future we had pictured.
But perhaps that’s what makes this conversation worth having.
AI is neither automatically our saviour nor inevitably our enemy.
It is a powerful technology being developed, owned, regulated and deployed by people and institutions.
Which means the future isn’t just a question of what AI can do.
It’s also a question of what we allow it to do, who benefits, who takes responsibility and who gets left behind.
We are spending enormous energy teaching machines to become more intelligent.
Perhaps we should spend a little more energy deciding how that intelligence should be governed.
Because the real divide may not be between humans and machines.
It may be between humans who control the machines and humans who don’t.
In Episode 6 of Truth Shots with Kapil — Season 5, I sit down with Jibu Elias to discuss AI, power, India, entrepreneurship, empathy, jobs and the future of human decision-making.
The episode goes live on 24 October 2026.
Watch on YouTube @kgismofficial.
