AI capability watch centre on the cards to assess emerging risks

The Centre is planning an AI capability watch centre to monitor frontier AI risks, strengthen governance and support safer adoption of advanced artificial intelligence

The government is considering setting up a capability watch centre to monitor the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), particularly those associated with frontier AI models, sources told Business Standard. 

The capability watch, likely to be established within six to 12 months, will also monitor developments across the  AI and frontier AI ecosystem, and identify experts working on advanced AI risk assessment, they said. 

“We are discussing it with industry stakeholders as well. While the government can determine the policy, the relevant subject-matter experts will have to be invited to understand and interpret the latest developments in AI and give suggestions to help shape policy,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity. 

The proposal has been put forward by the Technology and Policy Expert Committee (TPEC), an advisory body on AI constituted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in April this year. 

The committee, currently chaired by IT Secretary S Krishnan, includes B Ravindran, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras; Rajat Moona, director of IIT Gandhinagar; and representatives from industry bodies Nasscom, the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (Mait), and the Data Security Council of India. 

TPEC is a sub-committee of the 10-member AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), also constituted in April. Chaired by Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the AIGEG is also expected to sharpen India’s broader AI strategy by directing the bulk of public funding toward a limited set of use cases capable of delivering measurable outcomes within the next 12 to 18 months. Healthcare, agriculture and education are likely to be among the priority sectors.

The proposal for an apex AI governance body comes amid growing concern among experts over the rapid advances in large language models (LLMs) and tools such as Claude Mythos, which have demonstrated the ability to breach legacy software systems and existing digital defences. 

Alongside the capability watch centre, the government is expected to encourage information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services companies to undertake large-scale workforce retraining to build AI capabilities. 

“We would like companies to encourage employees to continue learning beyond their formal education. Given the pace at which AI is advancing and evolving, we will look at providing some form of support to help companies give employees access to tools and opportunities to solve real-world problems alongside their regular work,” another official said. 

To broaden AI adoption and usage, the IT ministry also plans to invite the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) “to participate in fostering collaboration between scientists and AI researchers and advance the use of AI in scientific research,” the official added.