Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become the most exciting and fondly discussed topic around the world, according to NT Arunkumar, MD & Country Head and Head of Innovation, Telstra India.
Participating in a panel discussion on ‘AI for Growth, Evolution & Technology’ at the ‘Bengaluru Tech Summit 2021, on Thursday, he 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 ranging from agriculture to healthcare, defense to manufacturing, to public services. Democratising its usage and closing the digital gap would transform the society, he opined.
Arunkumar told, “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. The contribution of this technology projects over $10-15 bn of the global GDP, translating to 3-4% of India’s GDP, he added.
“Academic world’s response to this tech has been really fast, Data Analytics Essentials programmes have been introduced” in various institutions, for instance, the AI Data Science undergraduate program at IIT Hyderabad, says Prof. S Sadagopan, Former Director, IIITB.
This aims at capability and capacity creation to tackle challenges associated with the supply side, bringing in more inferential thinking, he asks to have a “feel for data, without it you 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& Chief Technology Officer, TCS, thinks 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 & Biometric Architect, UIAI, said ffrom 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.
Talking about the continued cooperation and collaboration with India to bring innovative solutions using AI tech, Stephen Patterson MP, Minister of Trade and Investment, Government of Australia took part in the discussion./eom
