India to become a global hub for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and hoped many more Indians would start working on this in the times to come said Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the five day mega virtual summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) RAISE 2020.

 

He said the approach towards this goal is powered by the core principles of: Teamwork, trust, collaboration, responsibility and inclusivity. 

 

The Prime Minister said India has recently adopted the National Education Policy 2020, which focuses on technology-based learning and skilling as a major part of education. He added E-courses will also be developed in various regional languages and dialects. This whole effort will benefit from Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities of AI platforms. 

 

He said under the ‘Responsible AI for Youth’ program launched in April 2020, more than 11,000 students from schools completed the basic course and they are now building their AI projects.

 

He said the National Programme on Artificial Intelligence will be dedicated for solving problems of society. Modi listed the sectors in which he envisions a big role for AI - Agriculture, creating next generation urban infrastructure, addressing urban issues like: reducing traffic jams, improving sewage systems and laying energy grids, making disaster management systems stronger and solving the problem of climate change. 

 

He suggested using AI to seamlessly bridge language barriers and preserve the diversity of languages and dialects and use AI for knowledge sharing.

 

He urged to protect the world against weaponization of AI by non-state actors. He said human creativity and human emotions continue to be our greatest strength and are our unique advantage over machines. He urged everyone to think about how this intellectual edge over machines can be retained and ensure human intelligence is always a few steps ahead of AI. He said we should think about how AI can help humans to increase their own capacities.

 

Speaking at the inaugural session, Union Minister of IT & Electronics & Communications, Law & Justice RS Prasad said, "Technology keeps on evolving at a rapid pace but we welcome AI because it has the enormous potential to generate development, bring in further equity & delivery."

 

Issues of health, literacy divide and language divide are low hanging fruits - to deploy AI to bridge the divide for people at the bottom of the pyramid said Prof. Raj Reddy. 

 

Speaking at the inaugural session of Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE 2020), Mukesh D Ambani, CMD, RIL said, "We now have all the crucial components in place to make India a premier digital society. Together, our economy and society will generate data at an explosive and exponential rate. Data is the raw material for Artificial Intelligence. Intelligent data is digital capital and is a vital national resource."

 

India has the unique advantage to harness its enormous digital capital for AI-driven development, which is bottom-up and inclusive.

This is because of our twin strengths of democracy and demography, said Ambani. 

 

"Specifically, AI will enable India to move faster towards achieving the five ambitious goals set by our Prime Minister. First, of transforming India into a high growth economy on its path to $5 trillion…Second, of making our Industry and our small businesses Atmanirbhar and dominating new global value chains…Third, of modernising Indian agriculture and multiplying incomes of our farmers…Fourth, of delivering high-quality and affordable healthcare to all Indians…and fifth, of delivering world-class education, skill training and talent enrichment to every Indian, including those in the remotest parts of rural India…," commented Ambani. 

 

Digitisation efforts driven by PM Narendra Modi through AADHAR, UPI, GST and National Digital Health Mission have created an opportunity for AI to be leveraged to increase transparency and improve governance outcomes while safeguarding personal data and privacy," said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. 

 

RAISE 2020 Virtual Global Summit is organized by the Government of India in partnership with industry and academia.