In his new book India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta studies the bizarre behaviour of AI bots

Technology – the great transformative force of the modern age – has revolutionised every sphere of life, reshaping not only how we work but also how we think. No field has escaped its reach. Even in the dusty corridors of law, among its notoriously solemn practitioners on both sides of the bar and bench, technology has made its presence unmistakably felt. Files are out, iPads are in; video conferencing has become routine; and artificial intelligence (AI) has quietly become the preferred tool of legal research, replacing our own natural stupidity.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, once rightly remarked: “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.” A similar concern was expressed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said, “We’d rather build Apple Intelligence than just artificial intelligence – one respects your privacy, the other might sell it.” Experience so far suggests that AI is much like a rocket – without a proper control system, it’s simply a potential bomb.

At the pace AI is developing, Warren Bennis’s prophecy may yet come true: “The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be...

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