INNOVATING TO BEA GLOBAL AI LEADER

THE GOVERNMENT’S FOCUS IS NOT ONLY ON MAKING INDIA A VISHWAGURU IN Al BUT ALSO ENSURING SAFETY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS

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Artificial Intelligence, as we know it, has sharply evolved in the last 12-18 months. Recent advancements in generative AI and availability of sophisticated multi-billion para meter models has brought AI to real-life applications ranging from search to language translation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Kashi Tamil Sangamam that featured real-time translation of his Hindi speech into Tamil represents how far AI has come in a short time. AI is probably the most significant invention of our times and promises to be even more disruptive and transformational than the arrival of the Internet.

I have a long-standing interest in AI and so may be excused for some of the passionate advocacy. Some 30-plus years ago (yes, that’s my vintage), my Master’s thesis was about AI and intelligent machines (robotics). Using a then-powerful multiprocessor Unix system, I had struggled to create models (collections of algorithms) programmed in Lisp with a few parameters to train a robotic arm. Those were the pre-computer vision, preGPU, pre-Tensorflow days and, naturally, very little came out of it except a thesis and Master’s degree. I ended up in a career as far away from AI as possible in chip design at Intel.