AI regulation report: Broadly welcome but not entirely

The report bats for light-touch supervision but we need a more pragmatic approach in India's context

- RAHUL MATTHAN

Last week, the ministry of information technology (MeITy) released a report on the Regulatory Framework for AI in India. While the recommendations themselves are largely non-controversial, the arguments on which they are based suggest an approach to regulation that will hold our artificial intelligence (AI) industry back from achieving all it can.

In the first place, the report relies too heavily on regulatory principles developed by countries of the Global North. While there is no harm studying these approaches, we should give some thought to how they will work in the Indian context before imitating them blindly.

Countries make risk-reward trade-offs that are appropriate to their advanced stage of development. To the Global North, AI is nothing more than a tool that improves the efficiency of an already well-functioning society. If the risk AI poses is too high, they can afford to forgo some of the benefits it provides.

For India, on the other hand, AI presents a unique opportunity to extend the progress we have achieved to those who still remain excluded from its benefits. For us, AI is not a luxury. It is a necessity. If this is the only way we can quickly reach those sections of our society that are overlooked and underserved, we need to use it—even if that means taking a more aggressive approach to risk than the Global North considers acceptable.