“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” ~ Anatole France

Kids and youth of today will shape the future of the country, and hence the education we imbibe today will define what results we reap tomorrow. There is immense potential in students' energetic, curious minds; all we need to do is to tune them accordingly and provide the right direction and resources. 

Most industry leaders in the tech world have been stressing about introducing technology to kids early in their education. This will encourage their curious and genius minds to touch new dimensions and eventually bring more participation in bringing innovative ideas on the table to global levels. The multidimensional potential that AI holds is now globally accepted. Its understanding and knowledge might bring immense progress in various sectors and broaden the scope for the technology. 

In line with this, the honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, showed keen interest in bringing more young students to work on AI. To empower the youth to become AI ready and help reduce the skill gap, National e-Governance Division, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and Intel India have designed a National Program for Government Schools: Responsible AI for Youth.

On 31st May 2021,celebrating one year, the 125 studentparticipants of Responsible AI for Youth got an opportunity to e-meet with Mr Abhishek Singh, CEO MyGov; President & CEO, NeGD; MD & CEO Digital India Corporation (DIC) at Govt of India in a riveting Fireside Chat. 

Mr. Singh interacted with the students, heard their experience of the program so far and shared his views. “The subject that you are studying now is going to stand you in good stead in the next 50-60 years whether or not you choose it to make your career,” he said while referring to the importance of AI in coming times. 

He answered several questions by the students ranging from role of AI in education, government’s role and plans for future and how youth may be engaged to make India AI ready. 

Ms. Shweta Khurana, Director – Asia Pacific & Japan, Government Partnerships & Initiatives, Intel, addressing the students  said, “Digital readiness encompasses not only learning new skills, but also trusting emerging technologies like AI and its applications and building further on them for larger good.” Ms. Khurana is responsible for driving strategic programmes for building digital readiness in Asia Pacific and Japan region.

With rapid advancements in technology creation and application, it is imperative to skill the future workforce on new-age skills to ensure inclusive economic growth and social development. In simple words, it’s important to make the next generation ready for the future that will be dominated by emerging technologies such as AI.

With Governments worldwide working on creating comprehensive national AI strategies to create a sustainable, inclusive, and positive impact on its citizens, industries, and overall societies, the lack of public awareness and understanding of AI continues to contribute to an AI skill crisis. Hence there is an urgent need to demystify AI and democratize understanding of AI through appropriate AI readiness programs for the future workforce.

Responsible AI for youth is  a focused program for students from government schools and aims to give them a platform and empower them with an appropriate new age tech mindset, relevant skillsets, and access to required toolsets to make them digitally ready for the future.

The program is spread across three phases:

Phase 1- Let’s get AI-ready for a bright future! 

This phase provided online orientation sessions introducing Artificial Intelligence and the ideation process to utilize AI for positive social impact to the school students.

Phase 2- Deep dive AI training

Under this phase, 100 unique ideas were shortlisted for the deep dive AI Training conducted by certified Intel AI coaches and experts. The ideas have begun taking shape through continuous hand holding  support through training sessions from Intel.

Phase 3- The top 50 AI-enabled projects will be invited for a mega showcase (online or in-person). 

An individual committee of experts will select the top 20 most innovative projects and offer to showcase them at relevant platform as part of Phase 3 of the Program.

India’s own AI Strategy entitled “#AIForAll,” released in June 2018, identified AI as an opportunity for the country’s growth and development. The report also identified the importance of skills-based education (as opposed to knowledge-intensive education) and the value of project-related work to “effectively harness the potential of AI in a sustainable manner” and to make India’s next generation to be ‘AI ready.’

Such endeavors are preparing these kids to accumulate the knowledge and skillset that can empower them in the future to represent the country on a global level and stand up to the world’s expectations in terms of finding the best tech minds in India.

With inputs from Ila Singh and Barnali Mukherjee (MeitY)