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Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.
(Relevance: Today, AI and DPI have become buzzwords. India has also launched an AI mission and promised to make heavy investments for an indigenous AI language model. At this summit, India raised important issues regarding the sustainable use of AI. UPSC has asked a Prelims question on AI, but as the scope and potential of AI widen, it becomes important for you to understand all its dimensions, along with India’s actions and concerns.)
While addressing the recently concluded Paris AI Action Summit, co-chaired by India and France, Prime Minister Modi said that we are at the dawn of the AI age that will shape the course of humanity. He called for collective efforts to establish a global framework for AI that upholds shared values, addresses risks, builds trust, and ensures access to all, especially the Global South.
1. The Paris AI Action Summit builds on the AI Safety Summit held in the United Kingdom in 2023 and a smaller gathering in Seoul, South Korea, last year. The UK Summit focused on the debate surrounding the ‘doomsday’ concerns posed by AI. It led to the Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety which was signed by all 29 participating nations, including the US, China, and India.
2. The Bletchley Park Declaration signed at the AI Safety Summit, which was attended by 28 countries, affirmed that AI should be designed, developed, deployed, and used in a manner that is safe, human-centric, trustworthy, and responsible.
3. The Seoul Summit, co-hosted by the UK, was attended by 27 nations. The Seoul Declaration reaffirmed their commitment to international cooperation on AI, and to addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the new technology. The Seoul Summit also proposed a network of AI Safety Institutes.
2. The objectives of the two-day Paris Summit (10-11 February) were to provide access to independent, safe, and reliable AI to a wide range of users; develop AI that is more environmentally friendly; and ensure global governance of artificial intelligence that is both effective and inclusive. The Summit focussed on five major themes, including public service AI, future of work, innovation and culture, trust in AI, and global governance of AI.
3. Focus on open source and free from biases: Modi underlined the need for open-source systems that enhance trust and transparency, and building data sets “free from biases”. This comes at a time when China’s low-cost open source DeepSeek model has shaken up the AI industry, drawing comparisons with its heavy-pocketed Western counterparts like OpenAI and Google.
4. AI and Energy: This was the first time that at the multistake holder format, the issue of AI and energy was discussed. Emphasis on sustainability, push for ‘plug-baby-plug’, Modi talked about the “high energy intensity of AI”, and the need for “green power to fuel its future”. “At the same time, sustainable AI does not only mean using clean energy. AI models must also be efficient and sustainable in size, data needs and resource requirements,” he said.
5. Optimism on Jobs: Addressing concerns about the impact on jobs, he said: “Loss of jobs is AI’s most feared disruption. But, history has shown that work does not disappear due to technology. Its nature changes and new types of jobs are created. We need to invest in skilling and re-skilling our people for an AI-driven future.”
6. Governance in AI for the Global South: He said, “We must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance. Governance is also about ensuring access to all, especially in the Global South. It is where the capacities are most lacking — be it compute power, talent, data, or the financial resources.” AI can help transform millions of lives by improving health, education, agriculture and so much more. It can help create a world in which the journey to sustainable development goals becomes easier and faster.
6. Potential of India being a leader of Global South: Citing India’s example, Modi said: “India has successfully built a Digital Public Infrastructure for over 1.4 billion people at a very low cost. It is built around an open and accessible network. It has regulations, and a wide range of applications to modernise our economy, reform governance and transform the lives of our people.”
We have unlocked the power of data through our data empowerment and protection architecture. And, we have made digital commerce democratic and accessible to all. This vision is the foundation of India’s National AI Mission. That is why, during our G20 Presidency, we built a consensus on harnessing AI responsibly, for good, and for all. Today, India leads in AI adoption, and techno-legal solutions on data privacy.
Prime Minister Modi
📍India: Areas for the global cooperation on AI
1. Global Partnership on AI: This is an OECD-supported multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI. As a founding member and lead chair of GPAI for 2024, India has been working towards making GPAI the nodal partnership for global cooperation on AI.
2. Bridging the AI divide: India is pushing for inclusive AI Governance focused on bridging the widening AI divide between countries, and democratising AI globally.
3. Global South Priorities: India is advocating the empowerment of voices from the Global South in the discourse around cooperation on AI, spotlighting the unique challenges, opportunities, and requirements of the developing world.
1. The foundational digital systems that are accessible, secure, and interoperable in supporting essential public services are the basics of DPI. It has been instrumental in transforming the digital economy, much like traditional infrastructure for industrial growth. DPIs can be broadly grouped into two categories: Foundational and sectoral.
2. Typically, foundational DPIs such as Aadhaar, UPI, and Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) are developed to create robust digital rails and span the domains of digital identity systems and payment infrastructure, and data exchange platforms.
3. Sectoral DPIs provide specialised services tailored to the needs of specific sectors. Examples include the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which is the rails for the provision of universal health coverage. A notable DPI success story is the CoWIN platform, which utilised Aadhaar-based authentication to facilitate the administration of more than 2.2 billion Covid-19 vaccines.
(Source: PM Modi co-chairs AI Action Summit in Paris, PM Modi’s France visit: From AI Summit to boosting ties, what’s on the agenda?India’s Digital Public Infrastructure, ambafrance.org)
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