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India joins the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Published: 22nd Jun, 2020

India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, as one of the founding members to jointly work towards an ethical, human centric development and use of AI.

Context

India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, as one of the founding members to jointly work towards an ethical, human centric development and use of AI.

About

  • This multi-stakeholder global coalition includes Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
  • Born out of successive G7 summits in 2018 and 2019, GPAI has also been notable for China’s absence.
  • While non G7 members like India, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand have found a place at the high-tables for a joint development of AI standards, this new coalition is also being seen as a means to counter China’s growing influence in the technology.
  • GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centres of Expertise – one each in Montreal and Paris.
    • The OECD would also be a Permanent Observer to GPAI’s governing bodies and its experts participate in the working groups and plenary meetings.
  • This is also a first initiative of its type for evolving better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries.
  • In order to achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

India’s Role

  • By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging upon its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.
  • India has been taking steps to adapt AI in day to day life. In January, deep-tech start-up CYRAN from the Delhi campus of IIT introduced a do-it-yourself kit to help young Indian techies learn how to build AI-enabled technologies.
  • India has recently launched National AI Strategy and National AI Portal and has plans to leverage AI across sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications.
  • Membership to the high tables of development of AI-related policies presents an opportunity for India, a country that has been keen to leverage the technologybut has seen limited innovation in the field.
  • In fact, a discussion paper titled “National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence” released by NITI Aayog in June, says:

“Adoption of AI in India has remained rather limited, less than a quarter of firms in India are using AI in any form for their business processes and startup ecosystem in AI is virtually non-existent.”

  • NITI Aayog, in its discussion paper, mentions five barriers that have to be negotiated in order to “truly reap the benefits of deploying AI at scale.”

The COVID-19 outbreak however, has highlighted the importance of working on public health and technology together in order to fight the crisis. The development will be significant in such times.

 

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