Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday emphasised the need for regulations that foster technology innovations for the common good, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) but not stifle them. The government is determined to not only adopt AI technologies but also ensure their responsible application across various sectors, she said while releasing the report ‘AI for Viksit Bharat: The Opportunity for Accelerated Economic Growth’.
“We do not want regulation that literally wipe out technology itself. We want regulations because we want a responsible application,” she said after releasing the report prepared by Niti Aayog here. Sandboxes provide a testing ground for regulatory mechanisms, enabling a balanced approach that fosters innovation while ensuring necessary oversight, she said, adding, this helps prevent over-regulation that could kill the technology itself.
“India is a country which can understand the implication of a good which comes in our way, although a good is never unmitigated, a good is never without riders, a good is never - on its own - good, it is for us all to use in such a way that it is for the common good. “I think AI is something which we should know how to keep well under our reins and serve for the common good,” she said. Observing that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not static, the finance minister said, it is rapidly progressing, real-time and dynamic.
“Therefore, all of us will have to be conscious that we don’t sit back on the ethics. We need to be clear that regulation has to run the race equally as much as the technology is running it. If the technology is on a sprint, the regulation has to be on the sprint, too,” she said. Speaking about the benefit of AI, she said, it can play a vital role in finding solutions to improve the existing urban areas and to plan new urban centres.
“We need to understand that AI is capable of providing in-situ solutions, allowing people to remain where they are, while delivering the solutions they have been waiting for decades,” she said. Stressing that AI-assisted technologies should be adopted in all districts of India to bring development, she said, “I would want all districts to emerge as success stories of innovation and development.”
Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said, AI and related matters have gained significant momentum, with NITI Aayog moving strongly forward. Talking about the challenges, she said, there can be impact on demographic dividend if adequate upskilling is not provided and make the human capital AI- ready. “I don’t think it’s a gloomy picture of so many people who are going to get thrown out of jobs due to AI.
In terms of AI-driven upskilling programs, I would want more inputs to come to the government to see how best we can use it,” she said. To accelerate growth in economy, she said, “productivity needs to improve and for that AI adaption by industry is must. Many of them are doing it, but there is a mismatch. They are doing AI adoption, but the market is not giving them AI-ready human resources.”
Speaking at the occasion, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “we are passing through very interesting times when the world is going through so much of turbulence, India is very stable growing at a consistent rate.” Stressing that the growth is inclusive and robust, he said, it’s driven by technology and technology is the fundamental base of this growth.
“Over a period of last few decades, the biggest change which has happened, and the biggest factor which has joined this constellation of technologies, is AI, because AI is now affecting practically everything that we do,” he said. Like internet, which changed everything that we did, he said, “AI is also going to fundamentally change the way we work the way we live, the way we consume, the way we teach our children, the way we do healthcare, practically everything is going to be impacted.”
That’s why it’s very important to make sure that India is front runners in AI technology or in the use of AI development of AI, he said, adding, the core of this part will be R&D on one hand, and getting a very, very strong and deep talent pipeline on the other. With regard to Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), he said, against the target of 10,000, India has 38,000 GPUs available for everybody.
