Parallel initiatives of a collaborative partnership between the Indian Government and the technology industry and an early-bird entry of AI laws and policies is the ideal solution, for transparent and bias-free advanced innovations, to be introduced in a principled manner. While India is at the nascent stage of building its policy framework for advanced innovations, one country maintaining an almost steady lead, through a holistic conceptualisation of the foundational policies, effectuating innovative advancement is the United States of America. 

Unlike several other countries, this conceptualisation commenced as an independent corporate strategy by leading technology companies, in the United States, but has now evolved into a three-way dialogue between the Government, the private industry and research institutes. The US Government is also expanding public-private partnerships, to maintain its innovative lead by accelerating advances in AI, thereby addressing the issue of accountability by technology companies and also the Government. Comparatively, in India, regulation of the ‘AI revolution’ is currently limited to technology advancement sans policy development which lacks the propulsion for effective change. 

Let’s take the 6 “musts” for AI development and use listed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in 2016, which includes the basic principles for an AI-assisted future – assist humanity, transparent, maximise efficiencies without destroying the dignity of people, intelligent privacy, algorithmic accountability and guard against bias. Taking this further, in 2017, the Innovation Corps Bill pertaining to the economic impact of AI was introduced in the US Congress, which proposes job-training grant programs for workers displaced by automation. These policies tend to understand the long-term and far-reaching impact of technological advancement. However, contrary to the policies of assisting humanity and maximising efficiencies, in 2019, Zomato laid off a total of 600 workers owing to automation, technology product and platform evolution. In India, with a significant majority below the poverty line, similar disruptions could increase unemployment and cause societal problems. Microsoft’s principles and the underlying aim of the Innovation Corps Bill, are not unfathomable but instead are ideals to ensure seamless assimilation of technology into the multitudinal segments of the Indian diaspora.

In 2016, the US technology industry consortium with IBM, Amazon, Facebook, DeepMind, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, was launched to establish the best practices for AI systems and to educate/inform the public about advances in AI technologies including machine learning and automated reasoning. The combined force of several technology leaders created another set of basic principles, for self-regulation. The thematic pillars set up by the consortium - Partnerships on AI, include safety-critical AI, fairness and transparency, impact on the labour and the economy and AI for social good. The thematic principles may vary for India, however while the Indian Government is still deliberating on national strategies, it would be vital for the industry to create the parameters pertaining to advanced innovations including regulation of data sets, data bias, accountability, distribution of jobs to reduce further disruptions and explainability at various stages of technological integration. Such policies would help digress from the ever-imposing debate on the ill-effects of technological growth and move towards the best practices on human-AI collaborations.

In 2018, California passed a law which requires the general public to be informed if the online communication is with a chatbot or a human. This would assist in providing the public with the choice of sharing personal data or speaking to a consultant before disclosing any information. Though several Indian technology companies have introduced chatbots, disclosure pertaining to chatbot communication is hidden, leading to a lack of transparency, storage of personal data and also an increased liability for the company. This lag in Indian policies comes at the cost of increased innovations and reduced data ethics and accountability. The year 2018 also witnessed several technology leaders publishing their AI policies, including Google, IBM’s 10 Global Policy Priorities for trusted AI and Microsoft’s guidelines for developers of conversational AI. All these policies are sub-streams of the benchmark aims of accountability and transparency and seek to strengthen the regulatory understanding for the companies, the general public and the Government.

Accountability can be assessed only against the blue-print of principled policies. The interplay between technological innovations and policies vary across countries. For example, the use of facial recognition software by the police will be temporarily banned from January 2020 in California, due to several reasons including a lack in regulatory mechanism and possibility of oppressive surveillance. On the contrary, India currently uses the PAIS - an AI-assisted facial recognition system to track down criminals. Predictive policing could assist the State, but until the practice is regulated by well-defined public laws, the underlying fear of becoming a police state with limited emphasis on accountability and transparency is high. To attain a consistent technological growth, leading Indian technology companies would be required to create the benchmark policies for effective advancement, which could be integrated into innovations which have outpaced the birth of AI laws. 

Furthermore, the introduction of the Executive Order 13859 in the United States also heralds the new wave of advanced technologies through strategic actions including outlining the specific data available for advancement, recommendations to alleviate workforce displacement and even mapping the expertise which will be required over the next two decades of AI inclusion. One of the primary factors which would propel India into the ‘New India’ space in 2022 would be a formulation and simultaneous adherence to fundamental concepts of ethics backed by legal principles and policies. Notwithstanding the above, self-regulation by the private entities would also be key to addressing the national lag in formulation and implementation of national policies. This would also seek to unite the industry leaders under common policy initiatives prior to the introduction of public-private partnerships in India-AI advancement.

Source: INDIAai