NITI Aayog has published an ambitious discussion paper on kickstarting the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in India.
What is Artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans.
It uses computers to mimic human cognitive processes for decision-making.
Some of the activities computers with artificial intelligence are designed for include- speech recognition, learning, planning, problem solving.
What is Union government's decision on AI?
The paper published by the Niti Aayog discusses the powers of five sectors agriculture, education, health care, smart cities/infrastructure and transport with AI.
It highlights the potential for India to become an AI ‘garage’, or solutions provider, for 40% of the world.
The paper recommends AI tools for a range of applications such as reading cancer pathology reports, rerouting traffic in smart cities, telling farmers where to store their produce, and picking students at high risk of dropping out from school, among them.
The paper proposes an institutional structure to get things going including a network of basic and applied research institutions, and a CERN-like multinational laboratory that would focus on global AI challenges.
What are the challenges in achieving India's goals on AI?
These are lofty goals when the present scenario of AI expertise in India is considered.
While the paper estimates 50 top notch AI researchers, only 4% of the Indian AI professionals are trained in emerging technologies such as deep learning.
According to the H Index which measures how often papers are published, even though India does publish a lot, these publications aren’t very impactful and India is behind 18 countries in the H Index.
Therefore it cannot be relied on astechnology has tripped up as often as it has delivered.
