What does an Artificial Intelligence revolution mean for India

In this year’s budget the government doubled the allocation for the Digital India initiative in part to support the cyber physical systems mission. Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology, spoke to Malavika Vyawahare to give his take on what an AI revolution means for India

By: HT CORRESPONDENT
| Updated on: Feb 27 2018, 22:56 IST
AI is the future of mankind. Machine learning has two aspects; analysis and decision making.
AI is the future of mankind. Machine learning has two aspects; analysis and decision making. (Getty Images/Stockphoto)

In his latest Mann ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a technology that can be "harnessed to better the lives of the underprivileged, the marginalised and the needy."

In this year's budget the government doubled the allocation for the Digital India initiative in part to support the cyber physical systems mission. Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, department of science and technology, spoke to Malavika Vyawahare to give his take on what an AI revolution means for India. Excerpts:

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AI is the future of mankind. Machine learning has two aspects; analysis and decision making. The machine has to have access to all kinds of data, it has to choose what is most relevant and arrive at decisions.

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This involves having access to data and also communication. The next generation of communications 5G is radically different from 4G because it is catering to not just people-to- people communication but also people-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication.

Once you have made a decision, it has to have an action arm. If there is a road cleaning robot. If it gets data that some stretch is dirty, tt can go there and clean without human intervention. I call it a cyber physical system.

If you look at countries that are economically advanced they have the inverse problem (than India) . They do not have too many young energetic people- so the problem for them is how do you grow? Only way is using AI.

Our problem is how do we deploy AI to grow further. Some jobs will disappear- jobs that are repetitive will disappear. The only way to grow output today is to partner with machines- that not only do the job of manufacturing but for also deciding what is to be manufactured, where is the demand?

It is already being done in the financial sector.The IT industry is undergoing a transformation in that direction. It has been shown that machines can predict as well as the top radiologists. We do not have enough radiologists. Here you are creating a new opportunity- you are now able to serve a population that was not served. That is the opportunity for countries like India.

Delivery of education is a good example. Education is not effective and people are not there. We can have AI teachers.

We will have to reinvent the role of teachers. So we have teachers that focus on different aspects, things that require a human touch.

Even assuming that you are not producing as much of AI in machines here it does not mean it would not contribute to our economic growth. We should develop more AI, manufacture machines that use AI, but also deploy it. Companies that do not localize their products don't do as well. We need advances in fundamental AI but we also in tailored applications.

The mission on cyber physical systems will be launched next financial year. We have made a modest beginning. We have devoted about 100 cr this year. Now that needs to be scaled up.

There are 3 aspects: one is the AI layer that is digital. The second layer is physical, like machines and sensors and the third is domains. We will develop Centres of Excellence in this areas.

Also developing human resources at different levels- in high schools, the polytechnic institutes, in advanced research institutes. They can work on technologies that can be taken to the market.

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First Published Date: 27 Feb, 22:56 IST
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