Govt to prioritise AI innovation, regulate only when needed: IT secy

IT Secretary S. Krishnan says government's priority is to enable AI innovation, with regulation or legislation to follow only when clearly required

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The government’s primary focus is to ensure continued innovation in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, and there will be light-touch regulation or legislation only when the need for it arises, said S Krishnan, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

 

“If we believe that the priority needs to be for innovation, regulation is not the priority today. Having said that, let me again assert that if the need arises for legislation or regulation, the government will not be found wanting,” Krishnan said. 

On Wednesday, a subcommittee formed by the IT ministry under the IndiaAI Mission submitted its report on governance guidelines for companies working in the AI space in India.

 

The subcommittee has proposed an eight-point list of governance principles, which address subjects such as transparency, accountability, safety, privacy, fairness, human-centred values, inclusive innovation, and digital by design in the AI space.

 

For example, the report has suggested that AI systems being developed in India should be accompanied by meaningful information for users on the development process, the capabilities, as well as the limitations of the system.

 

“Developers and deployers should take responsibility for the functioning and outcomes of AI systems and for the respect of user rights, the rule of law, and the above principles. Mechanisms should be in place to clarify accountability,” the subcommittee report suggested.

 

Furthermore, the report suggests that all AI systems should be subject to human oversight, judgment, and intervention, as appropriate, to prevent undue reliance on AI systems.

 

The suggestions, Krishnan said, align with the government’s position on AI development.

 

“We are focused on human centricity. These crucial principles are contained in the AI governance guidelines, which have been provided to us. I think this report is going to be a key and important contribution, which again underlines the government's emphasis that our focus is primarily on innovation. We want to use this opportunity,” he said.

 

Though the government has come out with specific guidelines to check the increase of deepfakes and artificially generated image, audio and video content, the subcommittee has suggested that there are “existing legal safeguards/instruments to protect against misuse of foundation models for creating malicious synthetic media”.

 

It has, however, flagged that traceability of deepfakes and synthetically generated content should be established by assigning unique and immutable identities to different participants, such as content creators, publishers, and social media platforms.

 

“These may then be used to watermark inputs to, and outputs from, generative AI tools. These may be used to track and analyse the lifecycle, from creation to use, of a deepfake – and to determine when they have been created without consent or in violation of a law,” the subcommittee has suggested.

 

The subcommittee, chaired by Professor B Ravindran of the Indian Institute of Technology, also includes India AI Mission Chief Executive Officer Abhishek Singh, Debjani Ghosh, Advocate Rahul Matthan, and Sharad Sharma of i-Spirit, among others.