Centre will regulate AI, protect 'digital citizens': MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Currently, the application of AI is restricted to tasks. It creates efficiency, said Chandrasekhar

Union Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Friday said the government will regulate Artificial Intelligence to ensure that it doesn't harm "digital citizens".

"We will ensure that AI is used for good and not for harm," he said while giving a presentation on how far India has travelled in terms of digitisation in the last nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.

The same principle will apply to any technology or digital platform such as Web3, the minister added.

Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralisation, blockchain technologies and token-based economics.

"There has been an increase in toxicity and criminality on the internet. We won't let attempts to harm digital citizens succeed. Either AI and related programmes and platforms will mitigate user harm or they will not be allowed to operate in India," said the minister.

To a question on possible threats to jobs due to the development of AI, the minister said: "AI has created over one crore jobs in the last few years... There is a remote possibility that AI will become intelligent enough to start replacing human workforce in certain sectors after five years. But currently, the application of AI is restricted to tasks. It creates efficiency. There is a chance that it will replace overly repetitive and routine jobs in the coming years."

"While AI is disruptive, there is minimal threat to jobs as of now. The current state of development of AI is task-oriented, it cannot reason or use logic. Most jobs need reasoning and logic which currently no AI is capable of performing," the minister added.

On Thursday, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, whose company deals with artificial intelligence technologies and has created ChatGPT, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital and discussed various aspects of AI, including the need for global regulation.

In a tweet, after meeting Altman, PM Modi wrote, "We welcome all collaborations that can accelerate our digital transformation for empowering our citizens."

Recently, Chandrasekhar has said that the country has its own experts and views on norms regarding AI, and that it is not necessary to have a single global body to regulate AI.

Chandrasekhar made the comments in response to a suggestion by Sam Altman that there should be a single global body to regulate AI.