The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), along with the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) and law firm Ikigai Law as the implementing partner, has initiated a diagnostic exercise to evaluate India’s readiness for artificial intelligence (AI).
This exercise will utilize UNESCO’s AI Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM), a comprehensive tool that aligns with the global standards established by the UN agency’s 2021 recommendation on AI Ethics.
The RAM consists of an extensive questionnaire designed to evaluate India’s preparedness for AI across various dimensions, including legal, socio-cultural, scientific and educational, economic, and technical/infrastructure factors.
Over the course of seven months, five consultations have taken place, each including breakout sessions focused on AI ethics. The final stakeholder consultation occurred in Delhi on Tuesday.
Sources familiar with the discussions indicated that participants pointed out the absence of a cohesive data-sharing policy among states, the Centre, and private entities, as well as issues with data interoperability and the need for caution regarding AI outputs.
There was a shared understanding that AI cannot operate without consideration of intellectual property. An individual knowledgeable about the discussions noted that models like ChatGPT blur the distinctions between public domain and copyrighted content, leading to calls for a reassessment of copyright laws that were created for the print age.
The exercise is expected to conclude with a report by the end of the year, outlining what is effective, what is lacking, and what improvements can be made.
“The report will help us outline a strategy towards a safe, trustworthy, and responsible AI,” said MeitY additional secretary and India AI Mission CEO Abhishek Singh. He added that the exercise is meant to promote a pro-innovation approach with light-touch regulation focused on preventing user harm.
Singh announced that four Indian startups have been chosen to develop foundation models that cater to local requirements. He mentioned initiatives to enhance computing power to 34,000 GPUs and to broaden access to datasets via the AI Kosha platform.
Ten countries have completed RAM reports. The assessment is underway in 72 others to identify gaps and opportunities in AI readiness, said UNESCO’s Eunsong Kim. “India is quite a unique story in the RAM conversation, because it is vast and diverse. It is also extremely vibrant in the AI ecosystem,” said Kim.
Kim detailed how the RAM reports have been advantageous for other countries, referencing Chile’s situation, where the initiative strengthened cybersecurity, data protection, and digital policy. This process resulted in the formation of an AI task force and a national AI action plan in Indonesia, which is in the process of creating its RAM report.
Experts warned that India’s distinct social and cultural intricacies necessitate a more profound, localized comprehension, even as the RAM exercise provides a structured global framework.
“I do not think we fully understand the socio-economic impact AI will have on a country like India,” said Indian Institute of Technology Madras Centre for Responsible AI head B Ravindran. “We talk about bias mitigation and explainability, often through a Western lens. But bias in India is far more complex than in the US. It is not just black and white, but every shade in between. And we have not systematically recorded that.”
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