GPAI:
- It is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth.
- GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centers of Expertise- one each in Montreal and Paris.
- By chairing GPAI , India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging upon its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.
Significant advances and applications of AI:
- It has the potential to overcome the physical limitations of capital and labour and open up new sources of value and growth.
- It has the potential to drive growth by enabling
- Intelligent automationability to automate complex physical world tasks.
- Innovation diffusionpropelling innovations through the economy.
- Heavy Industries & Space: Through AI an entire manufacturing process can be made totally automated, controlled & maintained by computer system.
- Example: car manufacturing machine tool production, computer chip production. Etc.
- They carry out dangerous tasks like handling hazardous radioactive materials.
- Finance: Banks use intelligent software application to screen & analyse financial data.
- Software that can predict trends in stock market have been created which have been known to beat humans in predictive power.
- Aviation: Air lines use expert system in planes to monitor atmospheric condition & system status.
- Role in social development and inclusive growth: Access to quality health facilities, addressing location barriers, providing real-time advisory to farmers and help in increasing productivity, building smart and efficient cities etc.
- The exponential growth of data is constantly feeding AI improvements.
- AI has varied applications in fields like Healthcare, Education, Smart Cities, Environment, Agriculture, smart Mobility etc.
- Examples of AI use in India: A Statement of Intent has been signed between NITI Aayog and IBM to develop Precision Agriculture using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Aspirational Districts.
- National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) launched Pai which is an AI based chatbot, to create awareness around NPCI’s products like FASTag, RuPay, UPI, AePS on a real time basis.
Lack of R&D on AI in India:
- Both the government and companies are largely focused on AI applications, not research and development (R&D).
- And even in applications, much of the work is at the mid and lower ends of the spectrum.
- India is not in the top 10 nations when it comes to AI research.
- According to experts, currently, the race is really between the US, China and the EU, with the US in a slender lead. India has not even entered the race yet.
- We are in danger of being on the wrong side of the techno-colonialism, just as we did in the last three general purpose technology (GPT) revolutions that divided the countries around the world into the haves and the have-nots.
- Techno-colonialism describes the situation where the country or countries that control a technology exploit other, poorer countries that depend on access to that technology.
- In the US, the close collaboration between academia and corporations has ensured enough money for research which would pay off decades into the future.
- The US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also got into AI research early.
- China started much later but has invested big money to play catch-up.
- In India, neither the government nor the industry has focused much on research compared to US and China.
- In India we need to formulate a long-term plan just as we do for other infrastructure plans.
- It will mean squeezing expenditure elsewhere to find money for R&D and also giving incentives to attract research talent and getting the biggest corporations involved.
- For this the government must take a long-term view.
- Unless we start now, we will forever remain a dependent rather than a leader in the technology stakes.
Way Forward:
- It remains our collective responsibility to ensure trust in how AI is used. Algorithm transparency is key to establishing this trust.
- We must protect the world against weaponisation of AI by non-state actors.
- Riding on data and AI, India can achieve the bold vision of becoming a US$5 trillion economy by 2025.
- To achieve this, AI needs to be extensively utilized in all sectorsranging from agriculture, MSMEs, financial services, healthcare to energy and logistics to create a vibrant AI economy.
