Friends,

I extend warm welcome to all of you to today’s Vimarsh talk by Sh. Kundana Kumar Lal on ‘Rapid Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Emergency Preparedness’.

I am grateful to Sh. Kundana Kumar Lal for accepting our invitation to deliver today’s talk.

Sh. Kundana Kumar Lal is a leader in the field of AI. I first met Sh. Kundana Kumar a few months ago. We also had an opportunity to hear him at the VIF a few weeks ago on the subject of Artificial Intelligence. In his engaging talk, he spoke about the profound implications of AI for the emerging global order and advocating that India should invest strongly in AI in order not to miss the opportunity.

A renowned thought leader and influencer in the global IT landscape, Mr Kundana Lal occupied senior IT leadership position in business development, with Fortune 500 companies. He had an early M. Tech in computational intelligence and gained expertise in AI domains such as computer vision, natural language processing, predictive analytics, anomaly detection, information retrieval, and robotics.

He is the founder Director of VITTI Foundation an organisation, working in the area of AI, research, innovation, education and capacity building. He has been involved in establishing of AI innovation hubs and exchanges in the country in collaboration with industry and academia.

Friends,

AI is a transformative technology, which is bringing tremendous benefits for society in diverse fields such as education, health, agriculture, environment, business, manufacturing, research and development, disaster management, entertainment, and warfare. The scope of AI is endless. At the same time, the technology comes with grave risks. As AI develops into General AI, it will increasingly push humans out of the decision-making loop. The development of autonomous systems, including lethal autonomous weapons, is round the corner. There is already an arms race featuring AI. Ensuring cybersecurity will become even more complex. The jury is out whether AI will create new jobs or displace the existing ones. AI’s impact on individuals and society will be profound. AI also raises acute ethical questions.

Such concerns arise with any disruptive technologies. AI is no exception. AI’s advance is unstoppable. Concerns notwithstanding, AI will develop rapidly. This is a reality. India will have to invest in this technology big time, build the innovation ecosystem, create new skills, capacities, and use cases relevant to India, focus on AI education and R&D, and forge international alliances. India should also play an active role in the global debates about the regulation of AI. To emerge as AI leader, there is an urgent need for creating Indian standards and protocols in AI products and services before others steal the march. India should also be mindful that the US and China are the global leaders in AI and are engaged in a no-hold-barred competition for supremacy in AI. They and their companions are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the AI ecosystem. AI will drive the new world order.

Realising the importance of AI for economic growth and security, the government launched a comprehensive Rs 10000 crores AI mission in 2018. An AI supercomputing infrastructure is being built to which start-ups, academia, researchers, and industry will have access. This is a welcome development. We need to speed up the implementation, which is generally India’s weak point, and scale up the scope. It is essential to create synergy between different stakeholders and move ahead in a coordinated fashion.

I request Sh. Kundana Kumar Lal to address us