Mere Democracy vs Autocracy Arguments cannot Guide India's AI Sovereignty Approach

From Abhivardhan, our Chairperson

Huh, I appreciate AIM publishing this article featuring views by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former MeiTY Minister of State.

Except that the article is a naive reiteration of same policy ideas with no extensive understanding at all.

Most people never read about sovereignty, or even digital or technology sovereignty. This is no reference to the former minister, but the general discourse has been normative and monotonous.

Let's break this down properly.

When you claim that AI is a critical technology, and democracies need to develop capacity against potential Chinese dominance in AI, then the possible policy options that must be taken care of in are:

1️⃣ Create a pipeline to support more AI-related research & development in India, especially for our universities, research labs, startups and MSMEs;

2️⃣ Create a Ministry of Emerging Technologies that addresses these strategic issues independently, since MeiTY under current system and the Ministry of Science and Technology do not have an enhanced mandate to address emerging issues due to capacity issues(we published a report on this too: https://indopacific.app/product/reimaging-and-restructuring-meity-for-india-iplr-ig-007/)

3️⃣ India Inc. must be open to negotiate better deals and contractual terms with US-based and other global MNCs on critical legal issues, such as AI-generated content-associated rights, GPUs, data outflow, AI patentability, AI explainability, Responsible AI and other aspects. There is no need for hasty regulation for now;

I had already explored about Amazon patenting Natural Language Processing and how OpenAI is now a "competitor" of Microsoft.

It is time we become serious about AI sovereignty, instead of merely doing pep talks and summits around artificial intelligence in India. Sovereignty is a critical issue for the Indian State, and it cannot be taken lightly.

P.S.: We also announce that the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law is a Supporting Association for the ET Now AI Summit 2024. You may register for the summit at https://et-edge.com/conferences/ai/registernow/.

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