On Building Sovereign AI in India – India’s challenge

Source: This post on Building Sovereign AI in India has been created based on the article “India’s challenge: Building sovereign GenAI” published in “Business Standard” on 1^st February 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 3 Science and Technology – Developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

News: The article discusses India’s potential advantages and upcoming challenges in the field of AI, especially Generative AI (GenAI).

A detailed article on Generative AI (GenAI) can be read here.

Background:

For India, the 5th-largest economy, aspiring to become the 3rd-largest, not building sovereign capabilities in AI would be a huge mistake. According to the author, India needs to build sovereign AI, including sovereign generative AI (GenAI) capabilities.

What have been the announcements by the government in this regard?

1) Last year’s Budget contained reference to 3 Centres of Excellence for AI.

2) Plans to spend Rs.10,000 crore to set up India’s own GPU cloud infrastructure.

3) NITI Aayog has brought out papers on what can be done in AI in India.

What are India’s advantages in the field of AI?

1) Generation of Large Amounts of Data: AI (and GenAI in particular) needs large amounts of data to train its models properly. India is the 2nd-largest generator of digital data in the world.

2) IT industry’s Capabilities: The IT industry’s growing capabilities in building applications will certainly be an advantage.

What are the challenges for India in the field of AI?

1. Lack of Research: The US and China are clear leaders in this field, with decades of AI research behind them. India has only started.
2. Human Resources: To be able to build any significant AI research centre, the government as well as the private sector needs to attract experts (such as Indian-origin experts in foreign countries) in the field to come and lead the effort, just like China.
3. Lack of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) Cloud Infrastructure: However, this problem can be tackled as there are plenty of cloud service providers globally.
   Note: A GPU is a computer chip that renders graphics and images by performing rapid mathematical calculations.
4. Large Requirement of Electricity (and Water): Gen AI models require large amount of these resources, and the demand for energy will keep going up as GenAI progresses. India’s energy demand projections will have to include the GenAI factor in its energy transition journey.

Question for practice:

What is Generative AI? What are India’s potential advantages and upcoming challenges in this field?