tech
Smartphones and AI are remaking rural India
IT IS A warm afternoon in Nagepur and Bahadur Kumar is working at the power loom. Opposite the workshop stands his two-storey, half-finished house. Outside it are five goats, a motorbike, his wife and his 22-year-old son, Karan, who explains that he is busy doing a science degree at a local university while preparing for exams for a government job. Asked how he studies, he whips out a phone to show The Economist his favourite YouTube coaching classes and long conversations with ChatGPT about questions he does not understand.
TL;DR
- Karan, a 22-year-old science student in Nagepur, is preparing for government job exams.
- He uses his smartphone to access YouTube coaching classes.
- Karan also converses with ChatGPT to understand difficult questions.
- This illustrates the impact of technology on rural Indian education and career goals.