Nirmala Sitharaman calls for 'regulations' on AI: 'Should be kept in reins'

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday called for regulations in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space to track the rapid technological advancements. She said that laws and rules must evolve as fast as technological innovations. Speaking at a NITI Aayog event, Sitharaman acknowledged that AI has emerged as a "rapidly progressing, real-time and dynamic" technology, and "all of us" must be consciousthat "we don't sit back on the ethics".

“Artificial Intelligence is not static. It is a rapidly progressing, real-time, and dynamic. Therefore, all of us will have to be conscious that we don't sit back on the ethics. We need to be clear that regulation has to run the race equally as much as the technology is running it,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Nirmala Sitharaman said that India has the capacity to absorb and apply AI-driven solutions for the common good. She said AI should be kept in rein and must serve for the common good.

"India is a country that can understand the implication of a good which comes in our way, although a good is never unmitigated, a good is never without riders, a good is never, on its own, good; it is for us all to use in such a way that it is for the common good. I think the AI is something which we should know how to keep well under our reins and serve for the common good," she added.

Nirmala Sitharaman said the technology could play a vital role in improving existing urban areas and in planning new urban centers. Nirmala Sitharaman noted that AI is capable of providing in-situ solutions, allowing people to remain where they are, while delivering the solutions they have been waiting for decades.

She said AI-assisted technologies must be implemented across all districts in India.

What Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Artificial Intelligence

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change every aspect of life. He said India must be among the frontrunners in developing and adopting AI technologies.

He also compared the AI revolution with the internet boom.

"Over a period of the last few decades, the biggest change that has happened and the biggest factor that has joined this constellation of technologies is AI, because AI is now affecting practically everything that we do. Like the Internet, which changed everything that we did, AI is also going to fundamentally change the way we work, the way we live, the way we consume… That's why it's very important to make sure that we are frontrunners in AI technologies," he said.