Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said artificial intelligence (AI) is the greatest invention of our time, but also stressed on the importance and need of a global regulatory framework that harnesses the technology while steering clear of demonising it. The minister spoke at the recently held CNBC-TV18-Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave in Bengaluru, where Chandrasekhar also called for more accountability from social media platforms and said the time for self-regulation has long passed.
The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said, “I was at the Bletchley Park safety Summit organised by the government of the UK — countries have moved from the abstract of AI to a real granular focus on the safety of AI. And I said that we are making a mistake by correcting it so much, that you are now creating a narrative that is demonising AI.”
He continued to state that the government considers AI as fundamentally an empowering technology; “It is the greatest invention of our times. It is the greatest empowering technology of our time. We believe that it can be used to do things in healthcare, disease, agriculture, and governance in ways that we would have taken years and decades to do”
But the minister also called for a measured, nuanced and safety-centric approach, adding that there is a need for a regulatory framework for AI and drawing a parallel with other transformative technologies like social media.
“What the world did not notice in 10 years of social media about safety and user harm and criminality, we should certainly wake up to it now and create not an American framework or a European Framework or an Indian framework, but a global framework,” Chandrasekhar said, adding, “Our experiences with social media, the toxicity and the crime and the harms has shown us that, notwithstanding any country having great rules and laws and regulations.”
“We must move away from light touch regulation — platforms have to be accountable under law to deliver safety. We need to move away from assuming that no guardrails and government intervention are required when it comes to technological innovation — the self-regulation train left the station many months or even years ago,” Chandrasekhar said.