'Democratising AI usage, closing digital gap will transform society'

India needs to shift from being a service provider to becoming a global leader in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), an industry that is fast gaining ground the world over, according to experts.

Participating in a panel discussion on Thursday on the topic, 'AI for Growth, Evolution & Technology' at the 'Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021', NT Arunkumar, MD and Country Head and Head of Innovation, Telstra India said "It (AI) is more than technology, it is a way of life, hence the country needs to shift from being a service provider to becoming a global leader in the industry, a goal worth working towards."

He pointed out the increasing pivot towards expertise in building this futuristic tech and its applications in everyday life range from agriculture to healthcare, defence to manufacturing, to public services. "Democratising its usage and closing the digital gap would transform society," he said.

"When we look at Digital India, we have transformed it from more than a campaign, with India processing the highest digital payments in October 2021, surpassing China," said Arunkumar.

"Academic world's response to this tech has been really fast, Data Analytics Essentials programmes have been introduced" says Prof. S Sadagopan, Former Director, IIITB.

In various institutions, for instance at IIT Hyderabad, the AI Data Science undergraduate program has been introduced.

"This aims at capability and capacity creation to tackle challenges associated with the supply side, bringing in more inferential thinking," he said pointing out that without a feel for data, one cannot be a data scientist.

"Ready-to-use skills are to be developed and fostered by blending Social Sciences with Data Sciences," he emphasised.

K Ananth Krishnan, Executive VP and Chief Technology Officer, TCS, said the potential usage of new techniques this technology offers are immense. He observed that AI has ensured effective and efficient delivery of services, for instance in healthcare, during the Covid-19 crisis.

Vivek Raghavan, Chief Product Manager and Biometric Architect, UIAI, said, "From Aadhaar to UPI, AI is used to build large scale incremental digital systems".

Talking about AI in Judiciary, he mentioned the work going on in terms of figuring out the ways to easy access, reduce delays in justice delivery, and make judicial texts available in different languages, as has been implemented in countries like Bangladesh. 'Open Nyay' has been an open-source effort to create benchmarks for different kinds of AI using judicial data, he added.

( With inputs from ANI )

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