Pune: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, Vidyapeeth Bhag Pune jointly organized a workshop on “Preparing for the AI Era” at Bhimsen Joshi auditorium in Aundh on June 14. This workshop was exclusively arranged for their Swayamsevaks, Sevikas and their family members. The workshop started with paying respect to Bharat Mata and lighting the lamp by Subhash Kadam, Sanghchalak of Vidyapeeth Bhag and by both the speakers Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni (AI Advisor, PhD in Geometric modeling and visiting professor at COEP) and Dr. Anand Kulkarni (Professor and Associate Director of Institute of AI at MITWPU, Pune)
The workshop started with the presentation by Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni. He explained AI evolution timeline to the gathering. He explained that anybody and everybody should use AI in their work. AI literacy is must in the AI era. He explained how AI is transitioning from Predictive AI to Generative AI to Agentic AI. Which jobs will be at risk due to advent of AI and what all new jobs will be created due to AI. Software engineers need to know when to use AI and when to use traditional programming. What all the current challenges of using AI in programming and possible solutions to them.
There are three types of AI users, viz. Users, Developers and Researchers. Everyone should choose a role for themselves. At the end he explained what is the impact of AI on the environment. A small 10 sentence email created by AI requires 2 liters of water for cooling AI servers. AI consumes a huge amount of energy. AI servers generate huge amount heat, and it needs a huge cooling system. The corporates are willing to pay a premium price to the electricity companies which can create electricity shortages for the common consumers.
After Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni’s 30 minutes presentation, a group discussion between Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni, and Dr. Anand Kulkarni started. This group discussion was anchored by Omkar Pande. They emphasized that AI is not a cup of tea of everyone is a completely wrong notion. We should encourage even senior citizens to adopt it. The jobs of entry level software programmers and one level above that may be obsolete in coming years because AI will take care of it.
Therefore, the freshers from colleges should develop themselves into Lead or System Designer directly. Experienced IT professionals should transform themselves into domain experts and product managers for AI. If we become a consumer of AI, then we are replaceable easily. If we become AI developer or AI researcher, then we will survive the impact of AI. We will have to master Natural Intelligence to counter Artificial Intelligence. We have 5 senses. However, AI does not have 2 senses out of 5.
Both the experts explained to the audience the learning curve of AI. YuvaAI platform can be a beginning for AI literacy. The students should master themselves in mathematics and compute programming. They should select any branch of education. But take AI as minor in their degree. A lot of AI certifications are available now. Complete few basic AI certifications. Learn domain expertise in your field of education. The student must stop vibe coding or vibe debugging while learning.
The student should be able to write a computer program with pen and paper. Both the experts emphasized that the student should master natural intelligence over artificial intelligence. Both the experts reminded the risk of dependence on other countries for AI. They reminded an incidence of Microsoft stopping their services to few companies. This can happen in AI as well. Therefore, India must develop its own AI stack. Atmanirbharata in AI is the need of the day. Both the experts gave detailed answers to the questions raised by the audience.
The workshop was concluded by Manoj Sing, IT Milan Bhag Pramukh of Wadgaon Sheri. He said that civilization has been challenged multiple times in history. Humans have better capacities and capabilities. They should trust it. Therefore, people should not unnecessarily worry about the impact of AI and job losses.
More than 350 swayamsevaks and sevikas attended this workshop. Tarun Malviya (Co-founder and CEO at mithi.com), Manish Deshpande(Co-Founder and Director of 3More Technologies). Yuvraj Joshi (Developing Agentic AI Solution for govt. of South Africa), Praveen Ojha (CTO at EPAM Solution) and Sumit Wani (Director at HSBC) attended this workshop. They were felicitated by Subhas Kadam. The workshop ended with recitation of National Song Vande Mataram!
