The new normal?

We may have expected aTerminator scenario beforeAI became sentientand humans started usingsimilar technology to fightback, but it took a global pandemic tomake the most VR creation ever: Digitalavatars.Months after the Indian Instituteof Technology Bombay became thefirst major institute to scrap face-tofacelectures this year amid the novelcoronavirus pandemic, it held its 58thconvocation in “virtual reality mode”on Sunday.According to IIT-Bombay, it did notwish to deprive the students of thesense of achievement and pride ofpassing out of the premier engineeringinstitute.“A personalised avatar of each graduatereceived the degree certificatefrom the personalised avatar of directorprofessor SubhasisChaudhari. Themedallists also received their medalsfrom the personalised avatar of thechief guest,” the institute said.The videos, of course, went viral.People were amazed at how “the futureis now.”While the students couldn’t congregatefor the convocation, where Nobelprize winner Professor Duncan Haldanewas invited as the chief guest, theywere seen along with the guests intheir digital avatars on a virtual stage.This is for the first time in the institute’s62-year history that it gave awaymedals, awards and degrees to thevirtual avatars of the students on theday of convocation.“There is a lesson for everyoneinvolved in research,” Professor D Haldane,a British-born physicist who wonthe Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016, saidduring the nearly two-hour long event,which was streamed live.“India is poised to stake its claimas one of the world’s great innovationhubs,” said Guest of HonourStephen ASchwarzman, described asa “world-renowned investor and philanthropist”in an official statement.The guests addressed the studentsvirtually.In June, IIT-Bombay became the firstmajor institute to scrap all face-to-facelectures for the rest of the year. In aFacebook post, IIT Bombay DirectorSubhasisChaudhuri said: “For IIT Bombay,students are the first priority. Wetook the first step in India in concretelydeciding how we must bring a closureto the current semester to help ourstudents.”“But given the current condition ofthe pandemic, how do we plan for thenext semester for our students? Again,after a long deliberation in the Senate,we have decided that the next semesterwill be run purely in the onlinemode so that there is no compromiseon the safety and well-being of thestudents,” he further said.