PM Modi announces AI mission to build compute capabilities, solutions across sectors

India will now launch an artificial intelligence (AI) mission with the aim of establishing capability for AI compute power for startups and innovators, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was speaking at the inauguration of the Global Partnership on AI Summit 2023, which is headed by India as the Council Chair this time after being handed over the baton from last year’s Council Chair France.

Speaking more on the AI mission, Modi said that it will promote AI solutions across industries like agriculture, healthcare, and education. Further, through industrial training institutes (ITI), AI skills training will be imparted to people living in tier-2, and -3 cities. 

He further said that India’s AI supercomputer AIRAWAT will be soon made available for research labs, industry, and startups. The supercomputer is installed at C-DAC in Pune and was ranked 75th most powerful in the Top 500 Global Supercomputing List this year.

PM Modi's address emphasised largely on developing trustworthy, transparent, and ethical AI systems not just for India but for the world. “In the past, unequal access to technology has widened existing inequalities. (We) Should work towards saving humanity from repeating the mistake (with AI),” he said. PM Modi added that to make any technology sustainable, it should be transformative, transparent, and trusted – while AI is already transformative, now the focus should be to make it transparent and trustworthy so that ‘no one is left behind’. He concluded by talking about the need for a global framework that works within a fixed timeframe to build such AI systems. 

Echoing similar thoughts, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who also spoke at the inauguration event, said, “I am confident that the deliberations at GPAI 2023 will bring out best practices and uses of responsible AI.”

To be sure, India was one of the signatories of the Bletchley Declaration introduced in November which aims to address issues facing AI technology progress. It emphasises the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure AI for good. 

The European Union this week agreed on the landmark AI regulation, the first of its kind in the world. As per a Mint report, that quotes  S. Krishnan, secretary, ministry of electronics and IT (Meity), India will be taking a ‘light-touch approach to regulating AI’.