With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following?
- 1.Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units
- 2.Create meaningful short stories and songs
- 3.Disease diagnosis
- 4.Text-to-Speech Conversion
- 5.Wireless transmission of electrical energy
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) 1, 3 and 4 only
In the exam year AI was already used effectively for saving energy in industry, for diagnosing diseases and for converting text into speech. It could not reliably write meaningful stories or songs, and sending electrical energy wirelessly is a physics and engineering method, not something AI does.
- ✓ 1. AI models forecast and optimise energy use, raising efficiency in how power is balanced and used, including in factories.
- ✗ 2. UPSC's key treats this as beyond the effective ability of AI in 2020: machines could not reliably produce meaningful short stories and songs.
- ✓ 3. AI-driven diagnostics and imaging diagnostics are among the standard healthcare uses of AI.
- ✓ 4. Text-to-speech, along with speech-to-text, is a routine AI application in voice assistants and accessibility tools.
- ✗ 5. Wireless power transfer works through electromagnetic coupling. AI may help control such a system, but it does not transmit the energy.
- • Since then Since ChatGPT's launch in November 2022, generative AI tools can produce text, images, videos and music, so statement 2 would be judged differently today (UNESCO).
Remember · In 2020, AI = optimising energy, diagnosing disease, text-to-speech; not meaningful creative writing, and never wireless power transfer.
Sources
- NITI Aayog, National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (June 2018) ↗ “f) Energy: Potential use cases in the energy sector include energy system modelling and forecasting to decrease unpredictability and increase efficiency in power balancing and usage. … c) speech-to-text and text-to-speech; d) assistive diagnostic solutions; e) language recognition and transcription”
- UNESCO, Governments must quickly regulate generative AI in schools ↗ “With the power to generate outputs such as text, images, videos, music and software codes, Generative AI tools have far-reaching implications for education and research.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·