A case for regulating Artificial Intelligence
There is an urgent need to tap the potential of AI for accomplishing national objectives and fulfilling the aspirations of Indian citizens
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new buzzword in the town and is making too much flutter and scoop around. AI and Machine Learning are being widely discussed and claimed across the board to bring about a revolution in the way things will be performed and looked at in future. AI has revolutionised the method of performing various tasks through its algorithm-based software and has made future predictions possible and accurate. With the use of AI, many tasks have become easier to perform with more efficiency. It is expected that the way AI is advancing it will develop various applications that will be able to do acts the doing of which seem humanly impossible at present.
Artificial intelligence is the creation of computer systems that can carry out tasks that traditionally require human intellect, including perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation. Through AI, the goal is to develop intelligent machines that can think, comprehend, and act on their own, modelling some human actions.
The invention of AI applications and tools has made it possible to answer questions and write code and poems and books with human-like sensitivity. It is also expected that AI shall become an indispensable tool for carrying out numerous industrial activities. AI has developed and is in the process of developing such tools that will be immensely beneficial in business operations. Against this backdrop, it is not an exaggeration to say that the manner of growth and popularisation of AI would have made it seem like a one-stop solution for all human problems.
However, AI tools also have limitations and can generate untruthful and toxic comments and can spread misinformation, and spam, and can write misleading academic literature. At present, India does not have a law on AI. The government of India has already expressed its intention some time back that it is not considering any law to regulate AI. The government had conveyed its position that AI is useful for the digital and innovation ecosystem, but had ethical concerns and associated risks. Various government agencies have started efforts to standardize responsible AI development and are drawing up a blueprint for the development of AI for India.
Despite the position taken by the government, successful use of AI technology would require the enactment of legislation that will prevent the misuse of AI in situations that involve, loss to or, infringement of the rights of people. Such a law may permit only authorized persons to utilize the govt recognized AI Platforms, allow limited access to the usage of “Smart AI”, and may have penal provisions to cover cases of malicious use of AI such as blackmailing, morphing and creating false evidence etc.
Moreover, such a law may require programmers to take reasonable care and caution while creating AI systems in order to prevent harm to AI users. Businesses using AI ought to alert end users against any potential danger and must attach strong technical safeguards and technological measures of protection with every AI application to minimize their misuse. Failure in complying with such stipulations must entail legal liability for creators, intermediaries and commercial dealers.
There is a need to tap the potential of AI positively in order to use this technology for accomplishing national objectives and fulfilling the aspirations of Indian citizens. AI should be used to serve the interests of our created social institutions and economic, legal, and administrative machinery. There can be no doubt that AI has enormous potential to revolutionise many facets of society but to maximise its advantages and minimise its downsides, serious deliberations over ethical/legal frameworks should be initiated.