Emergence of AI Ecosystems: Impact on Public Interest Areas

With a focus on building AI for India, the proposed workshop with 14 leading think tanks from around the country as well as select industry leaders, will address the challenges and opportunities linked to the emergence of AI ecosystems, in line with the Standing Committee on Information Technology’s (SCoIT) research on this theme.

▪ To initiate a discussion on themes that intersect with the SCoIT’s research mandate on the emergence of AI ecosystems’ over the next five years;

▪ To better understand legislative priorities linked to AI, including how relevant Members of Parliament are framing their interventions in this area;

▪ To disseminate insights and knowledge that help drive progressive policies, in a multi-stakeholder setting.

We propose to share insights on the following research tracks and lines of enquiry:

▪ Equitable Compute Infrastructure: Since 2012, the computational power used in training AI algorithms has grown exponentially, doubling every 3.4 months and increasing by more than 300,000 times. India started its work on supercomputing back in early 1990s but has fewer than five supercomputers listed among the Top 500 supercomputers worldwide. Our member think-tanks are examining India’s needs in this area.

▪ Liability Regimes for AI Systems: In September 2022, the European Commission proposed the AI Liability Directive and the Product Liability Directive in order to modernise its existing liability framework. A conversation on AI liability is at a nascent stage in India. Our members have developed comprehensive research to inform this gap.

▪ New Innovations in AI – Agent Models: Traditional chatbots require pre-determined conversation trees to respond to enquiries. In contrast, agents are dynamic, can adapt to human language and conversation and have the ability to reason. This makes them a potent force to leverage in the Indian service sector context. We will organise a demonstration of agent models in action and discuss relevant public interest dimensions.

▪ Impact on IT Ecosystem and Jobs: No discussion on AI can be complete without considering the all-important implications on India’s IT sector as well as on job creation. Our expert participants will help frame useful inputs for the parliamentarians and also be available to field relevant questions in this regard.