India should ensure that it uses AI for the social good, while taking care of the high risks involved in the game, they added at Public Affairs Forum of India’s 10th Annual Forum 2023 in New Delhi on Friday. The experts also agreed that humans will ultimately prevail over AI and use it to create things that were considered impossible so far.
Abhishek Singh, Managing Director & CEO, DIC & NeGD, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, said, “In terms of public policy, India needs to have a very delicate balance between innovation and regulation. We have the world’s best talent when it comes to writing AI codes; we just need to have better access to data. If we are able to do that, India will be able to drive more solutions in the field of AI. At the time, we have to set up ethical frameworks for AI . There are a lot of efforts being made in this direction globally. The finance minister had said in the latest budget ‘Make AI for India, make AI for the world’. The Prime Minister has also stressed on the development of AI. Our approach has been to push forward ethical, responsible and secure usage of AI. We have to use AI for the social good, while taking care of the risks involved.”
If we have to design an AI model with respect to a working man, a woman, or a dog, the model will be designed keeping in mind similar cases in the past, said experts.
Sandeep Aurora, Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Microsoft, said, “AI has been around for years and suddenly when it has caught attention, we shouldn’t be carried away by it. AI has plenty of uses and there are some uses which can potentially be of high risk. All the attention at this stage should be on the high-risk cases, on how we govern AI — that is, what are the AI models which can potentially cause harm and what can we do about it. We also have to consider if we have enough safety breaks?”
For instance, even if a word in a medical prescription is wrong, it can be of high risk for the patient, he noted. “We need very strong participation from the private sector, along with sound governance from the government,” Aurora added.Suvrat Bhooshan, Founder and CEO, Gan.ai, said, “The industry largely should be allowed to self-regulate and come up with self-codes of conduct. Government support here can really make a difference by providing access to data.”All experts at the event agreed that technological innovations will need to play a pivotal role for India to become the third-largest economy by 2030. This transformation is already being spearheaded by deep-tech and AI, and both startups and established industry leaders are driving the development of AI applications and generative AI. These are revolutionising healthcare and education, enabling local language service delivery, driving cutting-edge research and development in industries such as semiconductor fabrication, shaping manufacturing processes, and transforming the e-commerce landscape.
