Since Turing’s Enigma, ‘AI’ has been used as singular jargon to conceptualize and capture the abstract and volatile fields of machine learning, electrical and computer engineering, data science, and some philosophy and psychology for good measure. Over the past decade, every future-looking nation has tried to vitalize the AI space and build policy and strategies that will harness the incomparable potential of AI, and mold it to cater to the needs of the country. AI is often touted as the ultimate socio-political tonic that can solve a battery of issues, ranging from unemployment and law enforcement to agriculture and healthcare.
India is no different in its calling to re-orient the nation as a digital and innovation-centric force that is poised to take on the challenges of the future. In that spirit, India has so far released two national AI strategies that lay out a clear and ambitious path that focuses on building India’s AI innovation capabilities; be it building data repositories that collect and store accurate and useable data points, or cultivating a symbiotic ecosystem of academicians and practitioners that can push the boundaries of research and practice.
As it stands today, India is primarily focused on deploying its AI capabilities in 5 major sectors, namely; Healthcare, Agriculture, Education, Smart Cities and Infrastructure, and Smart Mobility and Transport. Traces of AI interventions based on long-term rollouts can already be seen in newer legislation, e.g.; health bots, an AI-powered tool, will be a key component of the new United Healthcare Interface.
However, the AI strategies have also championed AI ethics and privacy of the people as paramount, while considering its massive socio-economic potential. These strategies have called for Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT) in all AI undertakings and have specified the need for inclusivity and diversity at every juncture. The AI policy schema has also considered both short-term and long-term eventualities that might occur from AI adoption; from issues to do with Intellectual Property Rights, to long-term existential questions regarding the creation of cognitive and physiologically detrimental AI. The strategy also demands the creation of a robust overarching regulatory framework that can watch over, amend and recalibrate, the AI ecosystem in step with democratic values.
The technological landscape surrounding AI is a changing space, and to keep up, much less harness its capabilities for the public good will be a gargantuan attempt. But as it stands, the outlook that Indian has taken so far is a step in the right direction with an equitable balance of caution and hope.
At the upcoming DSCI flagship Best Practices Meet 2021, a session shall be conducted on how public policy must be devised for an AI-driven world. The session aims to study and reconceptualize the AI policy landscape in India while keeping the focus on ethics and trust. The session shall privilege the perspectives of all the stakeholders and explore measures through which AI adoption and growth can be accelerated in India. BPM 2021 allows participants from a variety of backgrounds to interact and learn from practitioners and experts.