IT'S TIME FOR A RADICAL RETHINK

THE CURRENT MODEL OF AI DEVELOPMENT CONCENTRATES POWER IN THE HANDS OF A FEW COMMERCIAL PLAYERS. WHAT WE NEED IS A NEW MODEL THAT PUTS PUBLIC INTEREST AT THE CENTRE

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Since the launch of ChatGPT last year, AI has captured the public imagination. Popular narratives oscillate between unbridled enthusiasm about AI’s potential to advance societal progress and doomsday scenarios about the existential risks it poses to humankind.

Both narratives are misleading exaggerations. They not only distract attention from AI’s current harms, but also get in the way of building the incentive structures, capacities and partnerships needed to develop AI that is in the public interest.

Setting the narrative straight is particularly important in a country like India. Unlike in industrialised economies where many of the dominant use cases are focused on enterprise solutions, in India, AI is positioned as a means to leapfrog persistent development challenges. As AI applications are developed to fill gaps in public service delivery in critical social sectors, such as healthcare and education, their usage will impact people’s access to basic services and opportunities.

At the same time, institutional capacities in young democracies like India for addressing harms and mitigating risks are weak and fragmented—it’s not possible to leapfrog institutional development. The incentives to regulate AI are also clouded by a belief that AI represents the future and modernity, that developing countries like India have missed the boat on previous industrial revolutions and cannot afford to miss the boat on this one.

Experimentation or Innovation?