Focus on governance, scale vital for building trusted AI: Industry leaders

During a session at AI Impact Summit, panellists said AI development should be seen as a continuous process rather than a one-off initiative

India’s path to building a trusted and ethical artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem lies in focusing on governance, enterprise readiness, and long-term capacity building, industry leaders said at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Tuesday.

 

During a session titled ‘Building Trusted and Rights-Respecting AI Infrastructure’, panellists said AI development should be seen as a continuous process rather than a one-off initiative.

 

Raju Vegesna of Sify Technologies said, "AI is not a project. It is a journey. It is going to be continuous, and it will evolve". He noted that a handful of companies in the United States (US) and China are currently driving large-scale investments in AI infrastructure, which he described as "Phase 1".

 

"In a country like India, we still have a long way to go. We are now entering what I call Phase 2. It includes defining the use case," he said. He added that in order to derive its benefits, India should focus on a hybrid model combining hyperscalers and private cloud infrastructure.

 

Vegesna said that people who want to work in India should focus on scale, cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Building data centres, IT resources and transforming skillsets from traditional IT to AI will be critical, he said. 

 

On AI governance, Shahana Chaterji, partner for public policy and regulatory affairs at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said India is on the right path with its current approach to AI regulation. "The government has looked around the world and decided what we want to regulate and what we don’t want to regulate. We don’t want to bring in a framework just for the sake of it," she said.

 

Referring to the European Union's AI Act, she said that it is a "great piece of legislation" that has advanced risk classification, but questioned whether it stimulates innovation. India’s lighter-touch approach, she said, seeks to rely on existing laws to address risks arising from the development and deployment of AI systems, while encouraging growth.

 

"At the same time, it would be valuable to develop governance structures in any event," she added, added that these could be based on a self-regulatory model. 

 

Further speaking about the deployment of AI systems in businesses, Rishikesh Kanegaonkar of Nayara Energy said AI integration must begin within business teams rather than IT departments. Ideation should stem from business needs and be accompanied by a cultural shift focused on improving functionality.

 

He further listed some key considerations before rolling out a product, including defining return on investment metrics, allocating budgets upfront, investing in talent development for AI teams, strengthening infrastructure, and putting governance and ethical-use frameworks in place.

 

He added that organisations should move towards building and deploying AI products only after these foundations are laid.