Government to use artificial intelligence for good governance: Suresh Prabhu

The government will use artificial intelligence (AI) for good governance as well as protect citizen's privacy and ownership of data, said Suresh Prabhu, Union minister of commerce and industry, at an event in New Delhi.

India produces more data than the US (United States) and China combined and the top six companies in the world utilise data produced by India for value addition and monetisation, the minister said.  

Prabhu added that India is actively working on its regulatory framework and bolstering its legal system to deal with the new world of digital data.

“AI is the technology of today and one who masters this will rule the world,” said Prabhu.

“Every country is developing an AI strategy and India, too, is working on developing a strategy for the use of AI for the common good,” he added.

Apart from Prabhu, the event also saw an address by K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific adviser to the central government. Raghavan said that India has taken an initiative to formulate a national strategy for the use of AI. He also said that the process will be made transparent and participative to the general public in order to create AI awareness among the masses.

RS Sharma, chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), added that a data-rich country like India should develop a national policy for usage of data, privacy and issues of data portability in order to protect the sovereignty of the country.

“The government will have to put in place mechanisms on how data is used and algorithms are written. As all the data being generated in world today is being controlled by a few companies, it is creating asymmetries as very few create, understand and use this data,” said Sharma.

Sharma also noted that the scenario has given rise to a powerful elite who control millions of lives. He stressed that the government should make efforts to educate children, in order to provide access to mathematics and technology.

The central government has been keen on AI and its uses.

Recognising the role of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in making India a $10-trillion economy in eight years, stand-in finance minister Piyush Goyal said in his interim Budget earlier this month that the government will set up a national programme on AI, apart from creating digital infrastructure in over 100,000 villages.