Opinion | How India can lead the charge for inclusive AI
The AI Impact summit showcased India’s commitment to placing human well-being at the heart of the global artificial intelligence conversation
India brings scale and energy to everything it does and this summit was no exception. Representatives from over 100 nations came together. Innovators showcased cutting-edge AI products and services. Thousands of young people could be seen in the exhibition halls, asking questions and imagining possibilities. Their curiosity made this the largest and most democratised AI summit in the world. I see this as an important moment in India’s development journey, because a mass movement for AI innovation and adoption has truly taken off.
Human history has witnessed many technological shifts that changed the course of civilisation. Artificial intelligence belongs in the same league as fire, writing, electricity and the internet. But with AI, changes that once took decades can unfold within weeks and affect the entire planet.
AI is making machines intelligent, but it is even more a force multiplier for human intent. Making AI human-centric instead of machine-centric is vital. At this summit, we placed human well-being at the heart of the global AI conversation, with the principle of sarvajana hitaya, sarvajana sukhaya (welfare for all, happiness of all).
There are already examples of the empowering potential of AI in India. Recently, Sarlaben, an AI-powered digital assistant launched by Indian dairy cooperative Amul, started providing real-time guidance to 3.6 million dairy farmers, mostly women, about cattle health and productivity in their own language. Similarly, an AI-based platform called Bharat VISTAAR gives farmers multilingual inputs, empowering them with information about everything from weather to market prices.