“The collective intelligence of humanity is not going up anymore simply because people are not producing enough children,” Denny Kurien, the president and CEO of Keiretsu Forum, called out at the Malayala Manorama Sampadyam Kerala Business Summit 2025.
“In many developed countries, the birth rate is already below the replacement rate.” To the argument that human intelligence is levelling out, Denny Kurien’s response asserted a viewpoint that lightly touched upon another controversial topic—population control.
Though he didn’t dive deeper into that subject, it is likely that Kurien’s statements made listeners wonder if limiting births and other seemingly sensible strategies like DINKs (Double Income No Kids), DISK (Double Income Single Kid) and SISK (Single Income Single Kid) did reduce the rate of human intelligence on earth.
What is the solution to this unfortunate depletion? “AI,” Kurien declared. Artificial intelligence makes up for the lack of humans.
The technocrat cited a simple example: the recent invention of Google’s ‘Willow’, a quantum chip that solves errors and performs in under five minutes what might have taken even a supercomputer “septillion” years to accomplish. AI is, thus, getting faster than humans.
“One thing I frequently use AI for, is learning,” said Vimal Govind, at the summit. He was once only familiar with machine learning and deep learning, and now AI plays an integral part in his personal life and his company, Genrobotics, of which he is the co-founder, product architect and CEO. AI, therefore, imparts educational insight across a broader spectrum.
Artificial Intelligence serves as a breakthrough in varied fields, whether it is coding, customer service, stock picking or communication.
This also makes one consider whether the intervention of this groundbreaking technology is not just making up for the dearth in population figures but is also replacing people in a way that creates unemployment.
At Genrobotics’ the young entrepreneur assures, the aim is to introduce this advanced technology in doing what people shouldn’t have to do, like manual scavenging.
Then there is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which can handle anything, commented Ramanunni, co-founder and CEO of chargeMOD, briefly touching on a developing technology for which even the sky does not seem to be the limit.
However, the shoes of humans are still big for AI to fill. At the end of the day, AI still lacks that personal human touch, Kurien reminded.
Denny Kurien, Vimal Govind and Ramanunni shared their thoughts at the panel discussion titled ‘Smart Businesses in the Era of Artificial Intelligence’, moderated by THE WEEK News Editor Mathew T George, at the Malayala Manorama Sampadyam Kerala Business Summit 2025 on January 16, 2025, in Kochi.