{
  "id": 6960494,
  "title": "The AI age has a Tagore problem",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/12/the-ai-age-has-a-tagore-problem",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-12T16:43:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/tagore-the-ai-economy-and-the-people-left-behind/articleshow/134144012.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In a recent trip to San Francisco, the author encountered an unsettling revelation about the tech boom's impact on the city's homeless population. Homelessness was an undeniable reality in the city's Tenderloin district and other areas, affecting those who were largely ignored by residents and authorities. The author likened the situation to the zero-sum game of efficiency driven by AI, which either breeds conformity and profit or redundancy and exclusion.\n\nThe author stumbled upon a public mural depicting a fallen Statue of Liberty, symbolizing the consequences of automation. Above the image, a portion of Emma Lazarus' 1883 poem, The New Colossus, was inscribed: \"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free...\" Nearby, a tableau vivant illustrated a woman in earphones and a grocery bag exiting a driverless Waymo taxi, confronting two street-dwellers sharing a sandwich.\n\nThe author met up with a college acquaintance, who shared a recent unsettling encounter with a tourist from India. The tourist recounted how Rabindranath Tagore, during his second visit to the US in 1916, narrowly escaped assassination by the revolutionary Ghadar Party. The tourist's son questioned why Tagore was targeted, to which the tourist replied that Tagore was a British chamcha and had not supported the Indian independence struggle. The tourist's friend interjected that Tagore prioritized society over the nation, a concept the Indian people were still struggling to grasp. The tourist's friend then argued that the system often forces the marriage of politics and commerce, turning individuals into slaves instead of empowering them. The tourist countered that a nation should prioritize society, and India was starting to understand this.\n\nThe conversation shifted to the impact of AI and its potential consequences. The tourist's friend expressed hope that Americans might better understand Tagore's message. He believed that in the future, technological advancements would make it clear that the relative worth of each individual matters more than mere numbers. As the conversation ended, the tourist's friend spotted two tech bros leaving a bar and felt a glimmer of hope that perhaps Americans were beginning to comprehend Tagore's message.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}