New Delhi, Aug. 12 -- Walk into any coffee shop or family living room today, and you will witness a peculiar human phenomenon. A group sits together, yet each person is isolated. Everyone is deeply engrossed in a bespoke, algorithmically curated digital stream. This common visual serves as a stark reminder of a major threshold humanity has quietly crossed. Artificial Intelligence (AI) now acts as an independent agent rather than a passive tool.

Faced with this disconcerting realisation, my thoughts range from the socio-psychological capture of our youth and the "Inception"-like manipulation of corporate decisions, to the geopolitical vulnerabilities of tech dependency, and the rise of non-human bureaucratic systems. Sidestepping alarmism...