Coimbatore: Have you ever wondered why Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s picture pops up front in Google results when you search for Salim Ali, the Bird Man of India?
Coimbatore: Have you ever wondered why Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s picture pops up front in Google results when you search for Salim Ali, the Bird Man of India?
No birder in the country would be devoid of the knowledge on Salim Ali who was the one to popularise Ornithology in India. However, those who do not know much could be easily fooled by the picture of Pakshirajan, a character starred by Akshay Kumar in the Enthiran Sequel, 2.0, released in the year 2018.
The movie directed by Shankar and starring Rajinikanth, was already criticised by the science community during its release as it put the onus on cell phone towers for the eradication of sparrows from urban areas. Many ornithologists claimed that it was not cell phone towers as depicted in the movie, but non-green practices that chased away the birds. After more than six months, the effects of the movie are still a matter of concern for science, and this time it is caused by Google algorithm, which has put up Akshay Kumar’s picture when one searches for Salim Ali, the real naturalist.
In the world where everything is information there are still people who would not be able to differentiate between authentic and wrong information. However, the artificial intelligence that the search engines wholly rely on with the secret algorithms often misleads people with misconceptions, which is evident in this case.
Because of such algorithms, Search Engine Optimisations have in the past resulted in misconceptions, which are evident from the images of various politicians and leaders being appeared in the image search results of inauthentic titles, creating issues in recent times. On the other hand, will these small misinformation of Science lead to lack of its credibility and if yes, to what extent will it affect?
Commenting on the issue, P.B. Balaji, an avid bird watcher from Coimbatore claimed that this was not the first time such a thing has happened. “Though it is appalling, such gaffes are no longer surprising since we were also the people who put up Morgan Freeman’s photo in the place of Nelson Mandela’s in an obituary for the freedom fighter of South Africa”, says Balaji.
It may be noted that Morgan Freeman played the role of Nelson Mandela in the biographical sports drama film ‘Invictus’ (2009) directed by Clint Eastwood.
“It has to be done with Google’s algorithms. It picked up the tweets drawing parallels between Pakshirajan and Salim Ali when the movie 2.O was released. While it is good that a scientist is receiving accolades so long after he died, it is very unfortunate that pseudo science is being peddled under the guise of science fiction. It becomes very difficult to remove misconceptions from people’s minds”, he adds.
Quoting a similar incident of that of Nelsan Mandela with one involving M.K. Gandhi, Raveendran Natarajan, Founder and President of Irakugal Trust for Nature Conservation from Madurai, said that search engines are designed in a way to bring in the mostly searched topics at first based on the hits and trends.
“Even when we search for images of Gandhi we could find Ben Kingsley atleast one in ten images. Ben Kingsley is none other than the artist who played the title role in the epic historical drama film ‘Gandhi’ (1982) directed by Richard Attenborough. It is no surprise that a similar thing might happen in case of Salim Ali. However, it is more important that people rely on authentic sources when they are in need of any information”, he informs.
V. Kirubhanandhini, a Junior Research Biologist from Coimbatore, claims that it was not going to create any big issue though it was deplorable according to her. “The movie 2.O must have reached almost all people and they must be aware of Akshay kumar’s character in the film. The students of today are very much familiar with movies and technologies rather than nature and environment. Even if they are unable to recognise Salim Ali, they would have known the actor. So they will move for further research and will end up gathering what they exactly need somehow or from somewhere,” she opines.
C.R. Jayaprakash, Head of the department of Journalism and Mass Communication informs that it would affect those who entirely rely on online information. “People who blindly go for search in Google and Wikipedia are the ones who face such problem. For authentic information and to get deeper knowledge people should depend on books, journals or newspapers,” he suggests.