Designing India’s AI Safety Institute

Syllabus :GS 3/Science and Tech 

In News

  • Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced India will launch an indigenous AI model and establish an AI Safety Institute (AISI) under the IndiaAI Mission to ensure safe and trusted AI development.
Global Scenarios 
– Countries like the U.K., U.S., Singapore, and Japan have set up AI Safety Institutes (AISIs) to address AI risks, with a focus on global collaboration and technical understanding.
1. U.K.’s AISI launched the open-source platform ‘Inspect’ for evaluating AI models.
2. U.S.’s AISI formed an inter-departmental taskforce to address AI risks related to national security and public safety.
3. Singapore’s AISI focuses on safe model design and rigorous testing.

India’s AI Safety Institute

  • The AISI will operate under the Safe and Trusted Pillar and will focus on addressing AI risks.
  • India’s AISI will collaborate with academics, startups, industry, and government to address India’s socioeconomic, linguistic, and technological challenges.
  • India’s AISI will develop indigenous tools and frameworks that prioritize responsible AI while ensuring interoperability with global AI safety networks.
  • India’s collaboration with MeitY and UNESCO will help identify gaps in AI ethics and development.

Need

  • The Bletchley Declaration from the U.K. AI Safety Summit highlights global threats like cybersecurity and disinformation.
  • India’s vibrant startup ecosystem, like Karya, is tackling issues like unrepresentative data and multilingual AI development for inclusivity.
  • The Economic Survey 2024-25 highlighted that India’s workforce in low-skill and low-value-added services remains vulnerable to AI disruptions.
    • It recommended creating “robust institutions” to help workers transition to medium-and high-skilled jobs, where AI can augment rather than replace them.

Importance 

  • India’s AI Safety Institute can champion local concerns, such as bias, discrimination, social exclusion, gendered risks, and individual privacy.
  • It can influence global discussions on AI risks, mitigations, red-teaming, and standardization.
  • It is a key step in creating a standardized AI safety taxonomy for consistent understanding and communication among stakeholders.
  • India can position itself as a unifying voice for the global majority in AI governance, building on its leadership in G20 and the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI).

Suggestions and Way Forward 

  • India’s AISI needs to strike a balance between local relevance and global alignment by adopting international standards while adapting them to India’s context.
  • India’s AISI should help create a global framework to share information about AI models and their potential impacts, promoting transparency.
  • India can lead AI safety efforts in the Global South by co-developing AI safety frameworks and evaluation metrics to address local challenges.
Do you know?
– IndiaAI Mission was launched on March 7th, 2024 to enhance India’s global leadership in AI and ensure its benefits reach all sectors of society.
– The Mission has introduced 7 key pillars to strengthen India’s AI ecosystem.
– It emphasizes developing indigenous technical tools, guidelines, frameworks, and standards that address India’s unique challenges and opportunities, including its social, cultural, linguistic, and economic diversity.

Source :TH

 

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