Navigating through AI Hype is hard in work (Really), but not Impossible
From Abhivardhan, our President
Well, when you live through the brunt of AI hype thanks to the B2C marketing industrial complex, and startup folks, no knowledge or its presence seems trustworthy.
Why? I think the problem stems from this B2C marketing gimmick that one has to float through - a nonsense of too many people that AI policy, and AI governance is just anyone's cup of cake.
A second aspect of the problem is also that people don't intend to localise or personalise solving or even addressing AI governance realities. For example, the biggest myth that has been spread is that you need a regulation around AI to pass "some bucks" to lawyers.
While I am a consultant, not an advocate, nor do I run a law firm (Indic Pacific Legal Research LLP is a legal consultancy), I have to ensure each and every time that I am not one of those desperate, hungry wannabe AI experts who is present here to extort money.
My thing is quite simple - AI and Law start and end sometimes with 1️⃣ data protection at cross-border levels; 2️⃣ intellectual property and trade secret issues; and 3️⃣ contracts & bye-laws.
Plus, how one adapts with existing laws is always a legal-policy question for which you don't need to rely on hyped up think tank papers. It's common sense.
For example - if an AI system doesn't effectively process patient data from hospitals, how does it get conflicting or even not have baseline concurrence to existing laws? These are real-life questions. You don't need an AI Act for that.
This is me saying after drafting India's first privately proposed bill, aiact.in, and while I still don't expect anyone to adopt my 1.5 year-long drafting efforts to convert into a law - I am still happy that we could help clients, and initiate the AI Standardisation initiative at the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law. Outcome - we came up with some documentation - and a legal tech startup became an ISAIL member.
Sometimes, it feels that the initiatives we start - which take years are useless, not directly "commercial". But sometimes - you gotta build trust in the market, when AI hype is literally creating trust and capacity building problems.
That is how I see the AI market in India. While I never had a mentor in technology law, and I don't see any solidarity among the so-called data privacy and tech law "professionals" in 🇮🇳 who get some random "Legal Powerlist" awards, because of their lack of sportsmanship (in fact they can't stomach that I exist) - I am happy that we are addressing core market issues and blending them with legal expertise in AI governance and even other digital tech law issues - including data protection & competition laws.
And of course, I am always grateful to have some wonderful friends who stood up with me especially in tough times. Maybe I am not as famous as some random B2C legal or tech influencer - but I think I am happy where I am.
Still, should I now start a mini podcast series to dispel these AI myths? Thinking to do. It's high time.