Artificial Intelligence in India
Artificial Intelligence is a dedicated field for artificial systems programmed to match human performance and responses. The ultimate aim of creating these machine-beings is to replicate human reasoning and act according to the inputs with structured algorithms, using real time data, similar patterns of data captured and dispersed data from available sources and process it together to give an output.
Following the trend and being one step ahead in terms of experimenting, is a smart way to move ahead. But when it came to AI, knowledge and capacity utilisation of available tools and treasure also played an important role here. Before entering the competition, India had to measure competencies and evaluate strengths. The analysis raised a number of questions like would AI help create opportunities? Will it help us prosper? The answer was, Research! That is exactly what India did before it introduced AI in the country. India deeply analysed all the aspects of AI before determining its scope here and how it would give us recognition and a prominent place in the global market. India had already experienced how sowing the seeds of IT and ITeS sector since the early 90’s had fairly contributed to the GDP growth rate and benefited our economy. Although, introducing a technology sector this big in a developing country was not only a high-risk decision to be made, it was more of a ride or die scenario.
Today, Artificial intelligence in India is way beyond the starting line of the race. With Government wanting to implement strategies like digitisation all over India, it is expecting a growth in AI related start-ups and firms to use AI technology for their products and services. But the cost of failure is quite high which becomes a key reason as to why investors are hesitating to splurge funds in spite of extensive scope and demand in this very field. As a result of this, India has only been customising and adding features to borrowed innovations which already exist and have been put to use in other countries like The United States and China who are leading with their innovations in AI. If not anything, the Government needs to step up and invest in the upcoming ideas to build AI machines and applications, keeping in mind that in coming years, AI would contribute a huge chunk to the GDP growth rate of our economy.
The Government is keen on making AI a success in India and hence, has started to take baby steps towards broadening of various aspects that give a grip to AI systems and programs. The education sector is including AI related subjects and illustrating its scope in the near future, individuals are trying to upgrade their skills to prepare themselves for the era of AI, industries have also started to work with AI systems and creating new programs, the Government is planning to incorporate infrastructure that would support AI, and AI research centres for AI software like chatbots are being opened. With these changes and AI start-ups emerging in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India has definitely kick started its journey to reach excellence in the field of AI to be at par with other global partakers. But still, there is more road to cover.
There needs to be a clear understanding with respect to the policies pertaining to AI and its evolution. It is important to design a constructive path to formulate the same, rather than having a scattered approach. A detailed regulatory approach would help in the shape shifting of the economic conditions of our country. AI would prove to be very useful in Healthcare, education and agriculture sectors, advanced engineering, technology, High-tech electronic, semi-conductor firms, in e-commerce, and many more areas. In fact, AI industry alone is expected to generate around 2 lakh jobs by 2021.
India is a tech driven country and depends upon IT for most of its activities. Soon, the implementation of Artificial Intelligence would also catch on. The future is AI. And if you aren’t adopting AI or educating yourself with the ongoing innovations and trends of this field, it is sure to take you by surprise and you’d be forsaken sooner than you think and it would be hard to fathom.
From facial recognition software to diagnosing illness and drones to self-driving cars, everything is AI. Imagine the power of Artificial Intelligence to even have grasped the slightest probability of bringing this into reality. With the immense power that AI possess, there are also certain risks and threats related to misusing of this technology especially in the areas of security. AI regulatory agenda and application of laws should be implemented with precise details. It would be a question of debate to understand if the applied laws for human beings and machine-beings for performing similar acts would be undifferentiated or not.
When talking about AI, only considering its significant contribution to the GDP and economy or to the society at large is like undermining the power of AI, as it would change the entire scenario of today’s world and has the potential to make us question our own existence.
Thanks & Regards
Rithika Rao
Vivekanand Business School