Regulatory roadmap to address risks arising from AI unveiled

Committee lays down guidelines for AI governance in the country

- Sejal Sharma

A government-appointed committee has advocated using existing regulation to address risks arising from the use of Artificial Intelligence in India but has also pointed out the need for eventually reviewing laws and rules to fix gaps, particularly in the case of so-called intermediaries, while laying out a regulatory framework with a new apex agency for coordinating policy across ministries.

In its India AI Governance Guidelines report submitted to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on ‘Wednesday, the panel headed by Balaraman Ravindran, Professor at IIT Madras, said the AI Governance Group should serve asa permanent inter-ministerial body to steer AI governance efforts in the country. The AIGG will be headed by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and have government agencies, regulatorsand advisory bodies as members. MeitY should be the nodal ministry for AI governance while respective ministries and regulators would be responsible for governance in their respective fields, the report said.

Establishing the AIGG as a nodal agency has been identified as a short-term priority in the committee’s action plan, along with conducting “a regulatory gap analysis and suggesting appropriate legal amendments and rules.”

In the medium term, the committee recommended, the government should “amend laws, as may be needed, to address regulatory gaps.” Over the long term, it advised the adoption of “new laws toaccount for emerging risks and capabilities”. However, as the situation stands today, officials said, the governmentis of the view that nonew law needs to be brought in to regulate AI, with existing laws sufficient to mitigate emerging risks.

Nevertheless, the committee flagged the need to update a few laws suchas the Information Technology (IT) Act, particularly the classification of intermediaries.