Home ministry to host 2-day G20 meet on crime, security in age of NFTs, AI

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs will organise the "G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Metaverse" on July 13-14 in Gurugram, officials said on Monday.

The two-day event is being organised in partnership with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, National Security Council Secretariat and the Central Bureau of Investigation, they said.

The Rashtriya Raksha University, National Forensic Science University, National Law School of India University, Interpol and UNODC are the event's organising partners.

"The MHA will host the 'G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs, AI and Metaverse' on July 13-14. It will bring together G20 countries, nine special invitee countries and domain experts (from) around the world to delve into the challenges of advancing technologies," a Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesperson said.

The conference will bring together G20 countries, guests from the invitee nations and international bodies.

NFTs are assets that have been tokenised via a blockchain. These are assigned unique identification codes and metadata to distinguish these from other tokens. NFTs can be traded and exchanged for money or cryptocurrency.

AI is a rapidly growing field of technology that has already made significant contributions to industries such as health care, finance and transportation. AI has recently emerged as a critical component in the development of the Metaverse -- a virtual world where people can interact with each other and digital entities in a fully immersive environment.

According to the officials, the conference will see the participation of ministries and central government organisations, chief secretaries and administrators of states and Union Territories, directors general of police of states and Union Territories and cyber experts.

Guest speakers from the legal fraternity, academia, training institutions, financial intermediaries, fintech, social media intermediaries, information and communication technology, cyber forensics, regulators, startups, over the top (OTT) service providers, e-commerce companies and others will also take part, the officials said.