India is building its own ‘sovereign AI’
- December 1, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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India is building its own ‘sovereign AI’
Subject : Science and Tech
Section: Awareness of IT
Context: India is building its own ‘sovereign AI’
More about the news:
- India is aiming to adopt a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) approach to artificial intelligence (AI) after successfully implementing similar strategies for initiatives like Aadhaar and Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
- The government wants to establish sovereign AI, emphasizing the importance of developing its own AI ecosystem rather than relying solely on global players like Google and Meta.
- The focus is not only on competing in generative AI models but also on addressing real-world applications in healthcare, agriculture, governance, language translation, and more.
- The goal is to leverage AI for economic development and offer a sanctioned AI compute infrastructure for various use cases.
- Minister of State for Electronics, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, expressed this vision during an event organized by the Financial Express.
What is India’s plan for controlling its own AI:
- India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT has proposed the creation of an India Datasets platform as part of the National Data Governance Framework Policy.
- The platform aims to house non-personal and anonymized datasets from Central government entities, which have collected data from Indian citizens.
- The objective is to make this non-personal data accessible to startups and Indian researchers, fostering an environment for artificial intelligence (AI) and data-led research and startups in the country.
- The proposal is part of an effort to modernize government data collection and enhance governance.
- A report from a working group under the IT Ministry suggests that the India datasets program could serve as a unified national data sharing and exchange platform, benefiting various stakeholders, including government bodies, private sector companies, startups, academia, and more.
- The non-personal data within the platform might also be monetized, contributing to the growth of the AI ecosystem in India by providing a solid foundation for data-driven innovation and development.
How will India regulate AI:
- India is planning to introduce laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) with a focus on bringing significant changes to its digital economy.
- The approach is expected to be a hybrid of both the European model, which emphasizes regulation for the rights of citizens, and the U.S. model, which focuses on market regulation.
- The government is reportedly considering issuing a directive to major tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon to share anonymized personal data with a government-backed database, as part of the draft Digital India Bill.
- The directive could mandate depositing non-personal data into the India datasets platform.
- This initiative aims to harness economic benefits from aggregated non-personal datasets and was initially proposed by a committee chaired by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.
What are the key Provisions of the Digital India Bill:
- The Bill is a key part of a comprehensive legal framework which encompasses various legislative measures such as
- The recently-notified Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023
- The draft Indian Telecommunication Bill 2022, and
- A policy addressing the governance of non-personal data.
- The Bill prioritizes online safety and trust, aiming to protect citizens’ digital rights while remaining adaptable to market changes and international legal principles.
- Recognizing the significance of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, the Bill provides guidelines for their responsible use.
- It upholds the idea of an open internet, balancing accessibility with necessary regulations to maintain order and protect users.
- The Bill introduces stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for wearable devices, backed by criminal law sanctions.
- Contemplating a review of the “safe harbour” principle, the Bill suggests a potential shift in online accountability standards, presently shielding online platforms from liability related to user-generated content.