I love Ghalib when he says :

Wo baada-e-shabana ki sarmastiyan kahaan
Uthiye, bas ab ke lazzat-e-khwab-e-sahar gaee
(The hangover of the the nightly wine is no more.
Arise! For now the pleasure of morning sleep has gone.)
When Allama Iqbal was visiting Ghalib’s mausoleum, a young boy was reciting this very ghazal with such deep emotion that when he reached this couplet, even Iqbal’s eyes filled with tears.
Perhaps now it is our turn to shed tears. Do you want to ask me why?
You deserve to ask and I won't hesitate to respond.
The answer is that the world around us is rapidly becoming digital and artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a part of our everyday lives. ChatGPT and other AI tools have brought about a new revolutionary change in language, writing and media. In such a situation, there is a good number of people asking: Have the languages in general and Urdu in particular come under threat from this technology? Or are new possibilities for Urdu being born within this new technological landscape?
I have a clear opinion : Whatever happens to Urdu, AI tools have put not only Urdu but the creativity of every language at risk. Let us examine the possible dangers facing Urdu and many other languages. We can already observe that in linguistic usage, AI tools generally prefer formal language. This formal style is often basic and mechanical in nature, as a result of which the natural flow of the language and regional modes of expression can be affected.
But the worst impact is the widespread use of these tools for creative writing. This is the most weird and disturbing example of literary and creative dishonesty.
Just look at the following example. The other day I asked ChatGPT to write a poem on the theme of love. The response it gave is eye-popping. It says:
'Here is a new and heartfelt poem on the theme of love:
Love is a fire that cannot be extinguished,
It turns the heart’s desolation into a street of hope.
It is that moment which passes even as it stands still,
Giving voice to a silent longing.
Love is a river, flowing endlessly,
From whose waters every feeling emerges anew.
Sometimes it lingers in the eyes and smiles,
Sometimes it becomes moisture on the lashes, turning into a prayer.
It is that emotion which cannot be contained in words,
Giving language to every heartbeat and polish to every thought.
Love is that light which shines in darkness,
Lighting a lamp of hope on the glass of the heart.'
Now tell me; AI itself claims that it has written this poem from the bottom of its heart.' Really? , Where does AI keep its heart? And if it does have one, does that heart contain emotions and feelings like those of human beings, that it can write poetry from the heart? Isn’t that astonishing?
Beginners may easily mistake this for a human effort. Senior writers, however, on the basis of their experience and practice, can easily judge the arrangement of words, fluency, depth and spontaneity. But for the average reader, it often becomes difficult to detect this plagiarism. We have seen that many people of the younger generation are unhesitatingly benefiting from machine-generated writing. They have neither regard for anyone nor any sense of integrity.
In prose, this becomes even easier. When my friends first mentioned this, I could hardly believe it. I thought: how can a machine write poetry? Poetry is the work of emotions and feelings; and where does a machine have emotions or feelings?
But no, I have seen that the generation coming after us, the so-called Gen Z, is freely making machines dance to their tunes and publishing the machine’s labor under their own names, even collecting 'certificates of appreciation' from some official institutions.
Is this not literary dishonesty and betrayal that; someone gets a machine to write an essay and publishes it under their own name to gather praise and admiration? Then how will a genuine writer ever be born? We are already suffering from a scarcity of capable individuals; on top of that, these practices!
This situation has created a decline in creative abilities. Since AI provides material instantly, there is a strong possibility that many people will abandon the act of writing themselves and become dependent on machines. In the long run, this situation will be harmful to the creative growth of languages.
If we talk about machine translation, many AI models still fail to properly understand the subtleties and idioms of Urdu and many other languages of the likes of Urdu. As a result, distortion and incorrect usage of the languages are becoming common. There is a flood of faulty and substandard translations. With the support of these machine tools, many poorly educated experts have popped up in the guise of translators.
Since everyone is engaged in a race to insert their 'card of need' into AI tools like an ATM machine and obtain the desired content, the very need for experts in Urdu and other languages and their literature seems to have disappeared.
In my childhood, I read a humorous couplet:

Dil ho qaboo mein to dildaar ki aisi taisi
Kaun jhanjhat mein pade, pyaar ki aisi taisi
(If the heart were under control, to hell with the beloved,
Who wants the trouble; to hell with even love.)
Just replace 'heart' with AI, and 'love' with the Urdu language, either poetry or prose; any word you like, and the point becomes complete. Due to machine translation and automated writing, the importance of professional translators, writers and teachers is also diminishing.
If we talk about the current machine-driven system, tools like ChatGPT have made writing, learning and reading Urdu easier than ever before. People who were once distant from Urdu are now coming closer to it. Dictionaries and vocabulary resources are also expanding. AI models help preserve Urdu content in digital form which is beneficial for the survival of the language.
For students and teachers alike, these tools can serve as a supportive resource, especially for grammar, summarization, and creative writing practice. Through machine translation, people around the world can access Urdu content which is an effective means of promoting the language.
However, the greatest loss is the one I have already mentioned above: the distinction between human writing and machine writing is gradually disappearing and creative works are also reaching readers after passing through a mechanical process. As a result, the foundational teaching and research in Urdu are becoming weaker.
There is no doubt that AI tools should be used as assistants, not as replacements. These tools fail to preserve local idioms, accents and cultural expressions which are the core and essence of our literature.
The Urdu language faces a serious threat from ChatGPT and other AI tools only when we stop relying on ourselves and hand over every task to machines.
For creative work, however, AI should not be assigned any role at all. Let AI remain a machine; do not turn it into a poet or a writer. Otherwise, creative chaos and moral anarchy are standing ahead, waiting for us with all its hazards. Then we will not even have the opportunity to say that moments committed the mistake and centuries had to pay the price.

Email:--------------------hasnainaaqib1@gmail.com