India must prepare its workforce to assume global leadership of AI

Source: The post is based on the following articles

“Why we can’t ‘pause’ AI” published in the Indian Express on 1st May 2023.

“India must prepare its workforce to assume global leadership of AI” published in the Livemint on 1st May 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Relevance: About Artificial General Intelligence.

News: A letter coordinated by the Future of Life Institute and signed by apparently thousands of scientists, technocrats, businessmen, academics and others called for a six-month pause in the further development of Artificial General Intelligence. The signatories include Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple and others.

On the other end, ChatGPT has improved its ability to answer social sciences and humanities subjects much better than answering mathematics problems.

About the letter for pausing the development of Artificial General Intelligence

The central message of the letter is that further unconstrained development of such language models could create “human competitive intelligence” that if not circumscribed by governance protocols could pose a “profound risk” to humanity. Further, AI’s impact on society may be more exponential and will play out in a shorter time span. Therefore, the work should be halted until such protocols are in place.

What are the counter-arguments against pausing the development of Artificial General Intelligence?

According to some experts,

-Every technological transformation has triggered opposition by vested interests. For Instance, a) The industrial adversaries of the early 19th century protested the mechanisation of the knitting loom out of concern for the livelihood of skilled weavers, b) Many have cautioned against the adverse impact on jobs, data privacy and individual rights of the digital revolution.

-Technological progress will make the efforts towards sustainable development easier. So, pausing technological development will exacerbate the problem. For instance, technological progress might enable the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere. Thereby making a transformational step in the journey towards decarbonisation.

-The basic job did not disappear with technology: For example, earlier ‘runners’ were used to deliver mail. Later postman came. Now e-mails are delivered through telecommunication experts. Despite the evolution, the basic job (mail) did not disappear. Instead, it evolved into an avatar which required more skills but less physical work.

What is Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI?

What should be done?

Pausing will not solve the problem: The international community must look beyond narrow interests towards a collaborative effort to address the problems of the global commons, instead of pausing the problem. Such as increasing the availability of cybersecurity experts.

Understanding job evolution and preparing society for Artificial General Intelligence: This is the key to guarding against structural unemployment created by technologies such as ChatGPT.

What India should do to assume global leadership in Artificial General Intelligence?

Amend CSR norms to facilitate upskilling: Companies need to spend massively in upskilling their existing resources to leverage AI. Considering training and upskilling expenses as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending will increase private investment in that area.

Develop intellectual property (IP): India should frame policies to attract AI researchers from global pools.

Academic infrastructure: All school boards and Universities in India need to focus on Science-technology-engineering-mathematics (STEM). This will require a capability-building exercise of re-training relevant teachers for newer ways of teaching.

Apart from this, India should move away from rote learning also. Instead, India needs empathetic creators with a superior grasp of technology.