Artificial Intelligence

Context

India's first Artificial Intelligence summit, Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) 2020, held on virtual platform has become a Global Artificial Intelligence summit organized by the Government of India in partnership with Industry & Academia.

Background

The Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE 2020) virtual summit was a Global Artificial Intelligence summit. The summit would be a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and charter a course to use AI for social empowerment, inclusion, and transformation in key areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility amongst other sectors. It will witness robust participation from global industry leaders, key opinion makers, Government representatives, and academia. The RAISE 2020 Summit featured some of the most exciting start-ups working in Artificial Intelligence and related fields.

In Detail

In the spirit of making New India, government plans to leverage AI for inclusive development, representing the country's 'AI for All' strategy. The focused approach on AI has the capacity to placed India not just as a leader in the Artificial Intelligence field in the international community, but also as a model to show the world how to responsibly direct AI for social empowerment.

At the RAISE-2020, delegates and experts in research, policy and innovation on Artificial Intelligence joined from across the globe. The summit has discussed the cross-sector subjects like ‘Leveraging AI for Pandemic Preparedness’, The Impetus that Innovation Places on Digitisation, Inclusive AI and Partnerships for Successful Innovation.

The Summit also featured some of the most exciting startups working in Artificial Intelligence-related fields. Start-ups chosen through the AI Solution Challenge showcased their solutions in the AI Startup Pitch fest. This is part of Government's continuing support to tech entrepreneurs and startups by providing exposure, recognition and guidance.

NITI Aayog CEO said in the conference that India is developing AI-based solutions for social empowerment across spheres like health care, education, finance, agriculture and governance. He said, on the strength of its data and innovation prowess, India can become the AI laboratory of the world, delivering intuitive solutions to a wide range of societal issues.

AI-led Development

The RAISE 2020 summit (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment) has brought issues around artificial intelligence (AI) to the centre of policy discussions. Countries across the world are making efforts to be part of the AI-led digital economy, which is estimated to contribute around $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

AI is the branch of computer science concerned with developing machines that can complete tasks that typically require human intelligence. With the explosion of available data expansion of computing capacity, the world is witnessing rapid advancements in AI, machine learning and deep learning, transforming almost all sectors of the economy.

Machine Learning-based deep-learning algorithms in AI can give insights to healthcare providers in predicting future events for patients. It can also aid in the early detection and prevention of diseases by capturing the vitals of patients.

AI-based applications have helped biopharmaceutical companies to significantly shorten the preclinical drug identification and design process from several years to a few days or months. This intervention has been used by pharmaceutical companies to identify possible pharmaceutical therapies to help combat the spread of COVID19 by repurposing drugs.

Scope for AI in India

India has a large young population that is skilled and eager to adopt AI. The country has been ranked second on the Stanford AI Vibrancy Index primarily on account of its large AI-trained workforce. Our leading technology institutes like the IITs, IIITs and NITs have the potential to be the cradle of AI researchers and startups. India’s startups are innovating and developing solutions with AI across education, health, financial services and other domains to solve societal problems.

A Bengaluru based start-up has developed a non-invasive, AI-enabled technology to screen for early signs of breast cancer. Similarly, hospitals in Tamil Nadu are using Machine Learning algorithms to detect diabetic retinopathy and help address the challenge of shortage of eye doctors. For the COVID-19 response, an AI-enabled Chatbot was used by MyGov for ensuring communications.

Similarly, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) deployed the Watson Assistant on its portal to respond to specific queries of frontline staff and data entry operators from various testing and diagnostic facilities across the country on COVID-19.

AI-based solutions on water management, crop insurance and pest control are also being developed. Technologies like image recognition, drones, and automated intelligent monitoring of irrigation systems can help farmers kill weeds more effectively, harvest better crops and ensure higher yields.

Voice-based products with strong vernacular language support can help make accurate information more accessible to farmers. A pilot project taken up in three districts that are Bhopal, Rajkot and Nanded has developed an AI-based decision support platform combined with weather sensing technology to give farm level advisories about weather forecasts and soil moisture information to help farmers make decisions regarding water and crop management.

ICRISAT has developed an AI-power sowing app, which utilises weather models and data on local crop yield and rainfall to more accurately predict and advise local farmers on when they should plant their seeds. This has led to an increase in yield from 10 to 30 per cent for farmers. AI-based systems can also help is establishing partnerships with financial institutions with a strong rural presence to provide farmers with access to credit.

An AI-based flood forecasting model that has been implemented in Bihar is now being expanded to cover the whole of India to ensure that around 200 million people across 2,50,000 square kilometres get alerts and warnings 48 hours earlier about impending floods. These alerts are given in nine languages and are localised to specific areas and villages with adequate use of infographics and maps to ensure that it reaches all.

The Central Board of Secondary Education has integrated AI in the school curriculum to ensure that students passing out have the basic knowledge and skills of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had launched a “Responsible AI for Youth” programme in April this year, wherein more than 11,000 students from government schools completed the basic course in AI.

Conclusion

India has the talent and the institutional capacity to build an AI-ready workforce that innovates and delivers solutions to solve societal issues. The government is taking steps to promote the development and integration of AI into important spheres of life, in order to improve the ease of living and overall quality of life. The RAISE-2020 will serve as a starting point for India to become a data-driven society that leverages AI for social good.

India, with its “AI for All” strategy, a vast pool of AI-trained workforce and an emerging startup ecosystem, has a unique opportunity to be a major contributor to AI-driven solutions that can revolutionise healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, education and skilling.

Connecting the Article

Question for Prelims

With reference to the Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Youth program, consider the following statements:

1. It was launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
2. Its aim is to make government school students skilled in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
Which of the statements given above is/ are correct ?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains

Throw light on the ideas and thoughts for creating a robust AI roadmap for the world.