The final session of the mega event RAISE 2020, titled ‘Role of Government in AI Enablement’, brought together global representation from governments, academia and industry to discuss the roles that they need to perform in tandem in order to create a nurturing environment for AI enablement. Moderated by Dr. Rajendra Kumar, Additional Secretary, MeitY, the session hosted the following distinguished speakers:

• Dr. Saurabh Mishra, Machine Learning Scientist; Founder and CEO, Taiyo
• Mr. Tim Bradley, General Manager ­– Emerging Technologies, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, Australia
• Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras
• Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC
• Mr. Ibrahim Bapetel Hassan, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Policy Development and Analysis, Nigeria
• Mr. Eric Badique, Adviser for Artificial Intelligence, European Commission
• Dr. Amina Sambo Magaji, National Coordinator, National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigeria
• Mr. Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, Pi Ventures

In his keynote address, Dr. Mishra pointed to a unique opportunity for India – “the posterchild for service growth” – in the global deficit of data scientists, as AI is a service-based economy. Hailing the prediction capabilities of AI, he advocated foresight monitoring in order to “manage decision making in a more sustainable manner.” Presenting a specific case of mega projects that have a huge impact on sustainable development of cities, he demonstrated how AI-informed decisions could help to manage the risks involved.

Mr. Bradley stressed the need for governments to enable widespread AI adoption by businesses by developing policy frameworks for its responsible and ethical use. Sharing highlights from Australia’s AI policy, he called for a strategic international partnership between India and Australia to further the cause of responsible AI. 

The easy availability of AI-ready open data that is non-personal in nature was identified as a key area of government intervention by Prof. Ramamurthi who believes that we need to leverage all possible data sources for meaningful research in the field. This, however, must be accompanied by simultaneous policy reforms that monitor and protect the vast data that will be entrusted to academicians and innovators. 

Dr. Verma highlighted the enablement of access to affordable high-performance computers as an important role for governments. The fears of job displacement can be tackled by creating AI related jobs such as data annotation and, therefore, she advocated the inclusion of AI as a subject in school curriculums right from the primary levels. Very pertinent to the situation is the identification of the factors that curb the scaling up of India’s many startups and innovations, so she stressed the need for creating winning partnerships between the government and industry. 

Reiterating the importance for good policies that can distribute the benefits of AI to everyone, Mr. Hassan added that, “AI should be the vehicle for safety and freedom rather than one used just for advancement of technology.”

Mentioning the EU–India partnership for a joint AI taskforce, Mr. Badique emphasised the need for international cooperation for developing ‘human-centric’ AI policies. 

Stating that governments should use AI for an improved delivery of goods and services to the citizens, Dr. Amina shared the key points of Nigeria’s AI strategy. 

Bringing to the fore the challenges faced by AI entrepreneurs in raising capital and accessing public data, Mr. Singhal urged the government to provide more sandboxes and incubators, while he also propagated a fine balance between regulation and innovation.

Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay