AI can be used for applications in agriculture, health, logistics, education: MeitY official

"Given the DPI work that has happened, we believe that AI can be used for developing applications in key sectors like healthcare, like agriculture, like logistics, education, that can transform our lives," Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) told ANI on the sidelines of Carneige India World Technology Summit.

"It can increase the productivity of people at all levels. Farmers' income will go up. MSME businesses will be able to do their jobs more efficiently. So ultimately it will be a big enabler in our quest towards becoming a developed country," he added.

Stressing on need for a bias-free AI model, which is trained on Indian data sets, he said the country's researchers and starters are trying to build their own foundation models.

"Currently, the foundation models are all from Western countries or China, which have built them, but all these models have biases because they are trained on non-Indian data sets. They don't capture the Indian context, so we are providing financial support under the India AI mission to Indian researchers, Indian startups, so that they can build up an Indian foundation model which can work well in the Indian context," he said.

Speaking at the Summit, Abhishek Singh stressed on making Artificial Intelligence (AI) "bias-free" to make it more accessible and inclusive for all.

He was speaking in the panel discussion on 'Promise of Artificial Intelligence'.

"Whenever you think of making AI more inclusive and more responsive, the first and foremost thing required is that it has to be 'bias-free'. Whatever model we train, whatever the outcomes come out with, has to be inclusive and more representative. Unfortunately, most of the AI we see today is restricted to a few countries and a few companies," he said.

"In order to harness true potential across and to ensure that the largest community of people are not just the largest consumers but stakeholders in the development of the AI-based solutions. You need to be more inclusive," he added.

Stefan Schnorr, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Germany, stressed collaborative global policies on Artificial Intelligence.

"AI is reshaping our economies, our society and how we make decisions; therefore, it is in our interest. What is important for us is that we need similar policies for AI, as digitalisation does not have any boundaries. Without regulations, without rules, it is not possible to use AI," he said.

Aditi Jha, Board Director & Country Head, Legal & Government Affairs, LinkedIn India, highlighted the changing scenarios in job hiring, asserting that 70 per cent of skills required for any job will change by 2030.

"Since last year, we have moved away from the conversation that AI is going to take all jobs. We have become more nuanced in our understanding. What we have concluded is that by 2030, 70 per cent of skills required to do any kind of job are going to change. It's not something new," Jha said.

She also pointed out that freshers will be more affected by AI than experienced workers, stating that it is difficult for the technology to replace human skills.

"Young workers are going to be more affected by AI than mature workers. AI can do repetitive tasks so what becomes important is human skill, critical thinking, leadership, communication, empathy --- all of that. That comes with experience," she added.

Sandeep Aurora, Group Director, Head of Public Policy, Microsoft India, said, "It is a general-purpose technology, and what we have seen in history is that what happened with electricity and the internet, it reached some places late. We can not let that happen with the AI. India is a country where AI can solve citizen-scale problems. The Global South looks at India as a tech leader."

Shalini Kapoor, Volunteer, Ekstep Foundation & Author, AI for You and Sabastian Niles, President & Chief Legal Officer, Salesforce, also participated in the discussion.