Question : Impact of Artificial Intelligence

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to State:
(a) whether the Government has constituted/proposes to constitute a committee for assessing the excessive regulatory effects of the rising artificial intelligence of foreign companies in medical and public welfare services including digital services in the country and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the rising impact of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely to affect the employment level and sovereignty data in the country and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto; and
(c) the details of the steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard?

(a): Yes, Sir. The Government is cognizant of the impact of AI and practices of Indian and Global MNCs. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 have been notified to ensure ethical practices. AI and emerging technology fields are dynamic and rapidly changing. Any new developments will be factored-in and necessary course correction will be undertaken through appropriate regulations.
(b) and (c): The recent report from NASSCOM titled ‘Unlocking Value from Data and AI: The India Opportunity’, has highlighted that Data and AI can create 20 million jobs in different technical roles alone and have the potential to create more jobs in peripheral areas.

Also, several capacity building initiatives have been initiated to train and to build skill set among the professionals and newcomers. Some of these initiatives are as follows:

• FutureSkills has been started to train youth and professionals on AI in on-demand manner.
• ‘RESPONSIBLE AI FOR YOUTH’ is being organised to engage youths in ideation and solution development using AI. In phase I, 50,000+ students from 35 States /UTs and 5700+ cities have registered, and 11,460 students cleared their first level of AI training. 2705 Ideas were received. Phase-II is in progress at present.
• CBSE has introduced AI as a part of the course curriculum in higher secondary for learning at mass scale.
• Atal Tinkering Labs in Schools are also focused on AI and robotics related solution development.
• SWAYAM Portal, being operated by M/o Education, also runs several AI related courses.
• Government of India has organised events such as Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) which has also provided a vibrant platform for learning from the best experts in AI globally.
• AI Innovation Challenge was organised as a part of RAISE 2020 and out of 300 participating startups, 21 start-ups were rewarded.
• Government is also organising several AI challenge and hackathons in order to promote start-ups.
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