AS the world is moving towards the unknown, with power likely to be shifted from the humans to artificial intelligence (AI), the voices warning against the emerging consequences are amplifying and causing concerns regarding the functionality of the future`s social, economic and political systems.

AI takeover will create a hugely useless class incompatible with the new job market and its modern requirements.

Only a few societies will survive this transformation; the ones that will have relevant expertise and education. Those isolated to conventional education and pre-digital methods will be off the digital game and left with run-of-the-mill jobs.

Today, rights, such as the right to be relevant and the right to digital technology, are more important than freedom of speech, the right to free education, and the right to religion, for the future of the human race depends on it.

The right to be relevant means the right to acquire what is the need of tomorrow, like access to digital technology, modern education, skills andany othersource thatkeepsyouup to the pace with the modern world.

However, currently, nearly half of the world`s population is excluded from the benefits of digitalisation.

Yet, international organisations are lackadaisical since human rights do not inherit the right to digital technology.

The right to education provided under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has lacked purpose and is rather ambiguous. It does not explainwhich mode of education is the universal right: digital or pre-digital? What good universal right is for if it provides free education that is not of any help to be in the job market? In the AI revolution, the Western world might be immune to technological repercussions as it is part and parcel of the mechanisms that are shaping the world of tomorrow. It will be countries like Pakistan and Somalia that might struggle rather seriously since digital discourse is rare and technological jobs are still foreign to many in their respective environments.

The world has reached a point where there are no ifs and buts about the reality of AI. It is real and immediate; ChatGPT is only one such example. From answering questions and assisting with tasks, such as writing scripts, papers and essays, and composing codes to creating an entirely new human picture, movie, art and what not, the AI chatbot has revolutionised a wide range of industries within the proverbial blink of an eye.

If we want to be relevant to the modern world, we must enhance the pace of digitalisation before it gets too late. To obviate future challenges, human rights have to be redefined and embodied with new kinds of rights. Every individual must be conferred with the universal right of being relevant in terms of digitalisation, biotech as well as modern education and skills.

Failure to put a halt to increasing disparities between the developed and the underdeveloped, the AI revolution will split humans into two classes. The first class will be a newly upgraded elite of super-humans enhanced by bioengineering and brain-computer interfaces. The other will be the useless class darkened with irrelevance and degradationin a society ofthe privileged. This gross inequality will bring nothing else but catastrophe.

Which side of the catastrophe will we be? We have to think about that today.

Abdul Musawir Hakro Ghotki