'Regulations important, but should not stifle innovation'

Regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) will play a crucial role in guiding enterprises, but it’s essential for governments to ensure that laws do not stifle innovation, said Sindhu Gangadharan, managing director of German enterprise firm SAP Labs India, and vice-chairperson of industry body Nasscom, in an interview.

- Shouvik Das

This will foster the development of diverse India-specific use cases across industries, all centered around AI, she said. “At a policy level, we’re clear that we’ve so much bandwidth in innovation. As a result, we should definitely not apply the brakes on it. This is fundamental, but at the same time, it is also important to have necessary guardrails in place, so that we don’t get AI causing harm," she added.

Gangadharan said regulators must strike the right balance to innovate for the multitude of use cases. “In the India context, there’s so much that we can do with AI in healthcare, education, agriculture and so on. You can’t stop innovation in these areas, but these would require guardrails when it comes to deploying and using AI."