The Global INDIAai Summit 2024 began at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi on July 3, 2024.
The opening ceremony was graced by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways, and Information and Broadcasting; Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice Minister, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan; Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, and Commerce and lndustry; S Krishnan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY); Debjani Ghosh, president, NASSCOM; Srinivas Narayanan, vice president, OpenAI; and Abhishek Singh, additional secretary, MeitY.
The event saw the participation of global partnership on artificial intelligence (GPAI) experts, delegates, industry and startup veterans, AI practitioners, academicians, students, and officials from central and state governments.
During his address, Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasised on the intent and approach of government to democratise the technology and AI and make it accessible to all, leaving no one behind. He added that the government intends to invest in AI focused common use public platforms, which can be used by one and all to innovate, develop and deliver the products and services in a competitive and collaborative manner. He also touched on the development in AI space by Japan, European Union, USA, and UN. He cautioned on the risks posed by AI, which can be a threat to democratic communities, and called for responsible and human centered AI.
Meanwhile, Hiroshi Yoshida stated that hosting GPAI shows India’s strong commitment for responsible AI. He supported India as the chair of GPAI on the global south. He shared that Japan has established Tokyo Centre of GPAI and stated that Horishma AI process Friends Group has increased to 53 countries and India was one of the first nations to join it.
In addition, Jitin Prasada said, “India stands ready at the forefront of global AI innovation. Our commitment is to promote an inclusive and robust AI ecosystem. It is evident from highest AI skill penetration attained by India globally and substantial investments made in nurturing AI startups in the country.” He stressed on the vision of INDIAai mission that is to make AI in India and AI work for India. He emphasised on the need to work collaboratively to develop solutions for AI to solve problems and challenges in key sectors like health care, agriculture, education. He expressed that India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) are sought after by the other nations for replications.
Further, S Krishnan stated that a multi-stakeholder approach is essential for AI adoption at population scale. He stressed on the benefits of AI to the community at large and prevent user harm in all scenarios. He also emphasised that AI will be one of the cornerstones for attaining Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Furthermore, Srinivas Narayanan stated that OpenAI would like to partner with INDIAai and contribute with value addition. He shared various use-cases of AI solutions especially digital green (in agriculture), Bhashini (in Indian langauge), physics wallah (in education), etc. Moreover, Debjani Ghosh talked about truths about AI and explained that the first truth is AI is having transformational impact, the second is about reconciliation of the investment with the return on investment, and the third one is the human driven aspect of AI and not treating it as a magic bullet to solve problems. She expressed the hope that INDIAai will set a gold standard for AI by being truly inclusive and by keeping AI in human loop rather than keeping human in AI loop.
Additionally, Abhishek Singh added that the INDIAai Mission’s 12 sessions are planned over two days to cover in depth the 7 pillars of the mission and idea is to deliberate on the issues and discuss the way forward from multidimensional perspectives. He also apprised that India, as the chair of GPAI, is working closely with GPAI member states, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the global south for coming up with the future vision of GPAI.
Furthermore, six sessions on AI were held, including, large language model, GPAI convening on global health and AI, real world AI solutions, India’s infrastructure readiness for AI, ensuring safety, trust, and governance in the AI age, and collaborative AI on global partnership (CAIGP).
