Why Data Is an Incomplete Representation of Reality

By
Devansh
-
46
251

As AI accelerates, a young researcher warns why our data-obsessed world may be missing deeper truths

EDITOR’s note

As the world debates AI, one voice from the next generation offers a perspective that is rarely heard in India’s public discourse — but desperately needed. Devansh, a young Indian AI researcher working in the United States and published across 190+ countries, argues something profound:

“Data is not reality. It is only a filtered shadow of reality.”

In a nation rushing toward datafication — digital governance, Aadhaar-linked welfare, predictive policing, algorithmic decision-making — this insight has deep implications. His key question is simple but uncomfortable: What forms of intelligence are we ignoring when we reduce life to data?

In this first contribution to TheNews21 Pulse, Devansh outlines why societies, governments, and technologists must go beyond numbers — especially as India moves toward an AI-driven future.

THE ORIGINAL ESSAY 

Why Data Is an Incomplete Representation of Reality

By Devansh

For years, the tech industry has treated data as a sacred object — the foundation of modern AI. But while data is undeniably important, it does not capture the full texture of human reality. When we convert our lived world into rows, pixels, or tokens, three major forms of intelligence often get lost:

1. Cultural Intelligence — the invisible context behind every decision. 

Data can tell you what people did. It rarely tells you why they did it. Culture — values, norms, local logic, shared memory — shapes decisions in ways no dataset can fully encode.

For example: A model may predict that a user “should” prefer X because of their past behaviour. But cultural factors — family expectations, community pressures, ethics, beliefs — may make them choose Y instead. AI systems trained only on behavioural data end up mis-representing entire communities. This is why global models often fail in India or Africa — not due to poor data quality, but because culture itself is a missing variable.

2. Delusional Intelligence — the flawed human logic we often overlook. 

Humans don’t always act rationally. We misjudge risk,misplace optimism, follow trends blindly, and often believe things that are not true. This “delusional intelligence” is real, measurable, and profoundly influential in decision-making.

Yet datasets typically scrub out these irrational elements. We assume humans behave logically — when they almost never do. Ignoring this creates AI systems that assume rationality and collapse in real-world chaos. Markets, elections, social media behaviour — all demonstrate that irrationality is a constant, not an exception.

3. Subjective Intelligence — feelings, intuition, and lived experience. 

Data is objective by design. But humans operate through emotions, intuition, lived experiences and personal meaning.

Two people can observe the same event but internalise it completely differently. No dataset can capture the full subjectivity of what it means to be human. As a result, AI systems trained only on quantifiable patterns lack empathy, nuance, and moral understanding. Subjective intelligence is essential in healthcare, education, counselling, public administration and conflict resolution.

Ignoring it leads to systems that are efficient — but inhuman.

THE CORE ARGUMENT

When we convert reality into data, we compress it. That compression removes meaning. Data is a map — but the map is never the territory. If AI systems reflect only the measurable and ignore the unmeasurable, they risk becoming powerful tools that understand the world incorrectly.

Modern AI is extraordinary, but incomplete. As we build systems to govern finance, employment, justice, and society, we must ask what have we left out of the dataset?, what forms of intelligence have we erased?, what human truths lie between the numbers?

The future of AI will not be determined only by better algorithms or larger datasets — but by our ability to integrate the intelligence that data cannot see.

A MESSAGE TO INDIA’S POLICYMAKERS & YOUTH

India is adopting AI faster than ever — in governance, education, policing, agriculture, and health. But as Devansh reminds us, “AI built only on data will always miss the full story of the human it seeks to understand.” As a society, we must combine data-driven systems, cultural wisdom, human intuition and ethical frameworks.

Only then will our AI reflect not just numbers — but people.

Editor’s Note – TheNews21 Pulse

This article is part of our new youth-focused vertical, TheNews21 Pulse, amplifying bold ideas and next-generation voices shaping the future.

About the Author: Devansh is an AI researcher based in the United States whose writings are read in over 190 countries. He works at the intersection of compute architecture, machine learning, and human-centred AI design.

Follow Devansh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devansh-devansh-516004168?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app

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