Artificial Intelligence research hub to come up in Hyderabad soon

A Centre for Research in Applied Artificial Intelligence (CRiAA), a R&D Park, a Centre of Excellence and other facilities in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will come up in Hyderabad as the Telangana government on Thursday signed eight memoranda of understanding with various companies and institutions.

The state signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Intel, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad and Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) for the CRiAA, which will focus on diagnostics, proactive public health, health services optimisation, evidence based social strategy and policy, treatment protocols discovery and smart mobility, advanced safety, autonomous navigation, traffic management and smart cities and other areas.

It was one of the MoUs inked at an event organised here to declare 2020 as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Under another MoU, the NVIDIA will partner with the state government to setup a High Performance AI Computing (HPAIC) Centre. They will also assist in startup incubation, and host AI training sessions to support women and minority groups, officials said.

The state in association with IIT Kharagpur, has decided to launch a R&D Park and an AI-CoE, with applications in advanced manufacturing, life-sciences and aerospace and defence.

An MoU was signed with the Applied Cluster of AI, Norway, to design student and faculty exchange programme with the premier universities of Norway, and soft landing programmes for Hyderabad startups to get access to Scandinavian markets.

Another MoU with signed with Wadhwani AI under which it will deploy AI solutions for the benefit of expecting mothers and newborn babies. WAI solution will also be used for agriculture. It will also advise Telangana on using AI to solve complex social development challenges

Adobe Systems will help the state in capacity building. It will work to enhance digital literacy and foster creativity skills of youth

Information Technology Minister K. T. Rama Rao said the state's primary goals were to attract and enable over 200 AI innovators and start-ups to build their base in Hyderabad, educate and attract top AI talent from across the globe to work on critical areas as determined by the industry and government. "Another goal is to enable government and key industry verticals to leverage AI and deliver public transformation contributing an additional 1 per cent to Telangana GDP," he said.

Rama Rao said Telangana would ensure that AI serve humanity and the common good while enforcing fundamental rights such as privacy, equality, fairness and democracy.

--IANS

ms/vd