AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

Source-This post on AI and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has been created based on the article “AI can empower India’s DPI by enabling diverse apps” published in “Live Mint” on 5 June 2024.

UPSC Syllabus–GS Paper 3 – Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers

Context– The article highlights the potential of AI to enhance India’s digital public infrastructure by addressing various challenges. An event was held in Bangalore that attracted companies from the AI sector to showcase their developments and to understand ongoing work in the field.

 What major insight did the event offer?

1) Computer resources need not be centralized in large data centers but could be distributed across multiple micro data centers accessible through an interoperable protocol.

2) Companies don’t have to wait for a new AI law to be enforced. Instead, every Indian AI company can commit to following a code of conduct that directs their innovation in this area.

Read more- European Union adopts first AI Law

3) The most impactful idea was the potential for AI to significantly enhance the reach of digital public infrastructure (DPI).

What are the issues with the current digital public infrastructure (DPI)?

DPI solutions are built using standardized protocols to ensure consistent and reliable services at a population scale. However, standardized solutions are not able to handle diversity well, so while they work for a lot of people, they don’t adapt easily to different situations.

What is the essential feature of the DPI playbook?

The essential feature of the DPI playbook is the unbundling of traditional processes to rebuild them as DPI solutions. This transformation is necessary to scale existing services effectively to reach a broad population.

How can AI contribute to enhancing existing DPI solutions?

1) AI can dynamically adapt to individual preferences and contexts. It can make public service delivery more responsive and user-centric by adjusting to users’ engagement modes.

2) It can accommodate linguistic and cultural diversity. It can also improve DPI solutions by providing personalized and user-friendly interfaces.
For ex– Setu, a finance company, showed an AI-powered personal finance app at the event. This app, made in a WhatsApp bot, uses the Account Aggregator system to study how users handle money and give them helpful advice. Its chat interface makes it easy to use, even for people who have limited knowledge about finances.

3) With the increasing integration of AI into DPI solutions by various companies, India’s digital public infrastructure has the potential to cater to diverse needs and preferences of s every citizen.

Question for practice

What are the problems with the current digital public infrastructure (DPI)? How does AI help improve existing DPI solutions?