The government will attempt to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) but not in a way that could stifle innovation in the space, a top IT ministry official said Friday. This signalled that the Centre is expected to take a middle path for AI regulation, as it has taken in some of its recent technology laws such as data protection, where the focus is not just on protecting civil rights, but also towards facilitating the country’s growing start-up base. “While we will attempt to regulate AI, we are clear that innovation is not stifled in the process. It (innovation) needs to be encouraged… Like we did with the DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection) Act, we will ensure that both the interests of innovation and protection of vital interests will come in in the future,” said IT Secretary S Krishnan, speaking during a session titled ‘AI: What does the future hold’ at the CII Annual Business Summit 2024. He also said that India may have an advantage over other countries in arriving late to AI regulation as it can learn from other regions’ mistakes. “We have an opportunity to learn and figure out what has gone wrong (in other countries) and make a framework that works for India… It is a bit of an advantage in coming to the scene a bit late,” Krishnan said. Calling the impact of AI on job losses a “concern,” Krishan said that there are still no clear answers on the kinds of jobs that could get affected due to AI. He, however, said that the impact in India could be limited because of its large pool of engineers who have exposure to the technology and its white collar workforce in the technology services sector being relatively insulated from the potential impact. He cautioned that a “massive amount” of retraining and skilling would be required to keep India’s workforce safe from possible job losses. Krishnan termed AI a “transformational” technology, equating its potential impact to that of the steam engine and the Internet. “AI truly is a transformational technology and could be an inflection point in economic history and make the difference that previous episodes of horizontal technologies like the steam engine, Internet etc. We can see its benefits across different sectors of the economy,” he said. Before the election schedule, the Union Cabinet had approved the Rs 10,300 crore India AI Mission, under which it aims to procure AI compute capacity and offer it at a subsidised rate to start-ups and researchers. Krishnan said that the capacity will be put together in partnership with private companies and the government would make the capacity available either through viable gap funding or a voucher based mechanism.
