Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

• 16 Jun 2020

Why in News

India has joined the 'Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI)' as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Key Points

• Objective: GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, based on human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth.
• Functions:
  
  • Bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.
    
    • An example would be looking at how AI could help societies respond to and recover from the Covid-19 crisis.
  • Bring together leading experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia to conduct research and pilot projects on AI.
  • It will initially comprise four working groups focused on responsible AI, data governance, the future of work, and innovation and commercialisation.
• Founding Members: Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Organisation:
  
  • GPAI will be supported by a Secretariat, to be hosted by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, as well as by two Centers of Expertise- one each in Montreal (Canada) and Paris (France).
  • GPAI will be able to take advantage of the OECD’s expertise on AI policy and its leadership in setting out the first international standard for trustworthy AI – the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence.
  • The OECD will also be a Permanent Observer to the GPAI’s governing bodies.
• Background: Born out of the Canadian and French G7 Presidencies in 2018 and 2019, GPAI was officially proposed by France and Canada at the Biarritz Summit in August 2019.

Artificial Intelligence

• It describes the action of machines accomplishing tasks that have historically required human intelligence.
• It includes technologies like machine learning, pattern recognition, big data, neural networks, self algorithms etc.
• Example: Facebook’s list of suggested friends for its users, self-driving cars, etc.
• AI automates processes and reduces human error but the principal limitation of AI is that it learns from the data. This means any inaccuracies in the data will be reflected in the results.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

• It was formed in 1961. It has 37 member countries. India is not a member but one of the key partners of the organisation.
• It is an international organisation, having a goal to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all.
• PISA is the OECD’s programme for international student assessment.
  
  • India will participate in the PISA test 2021.
• It is headquartered at Paris, France.
  
  • The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Secretariat is located at OECD headquarters.

G7

• It is a bloc of industrialised democracies - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Recent Initiatives by India in the Field of AI

• India has recently launched National AI Strategy and National AI Portal and have also started leveraging AI across various sectors such as education, agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications, etc.
• The National AI strategy was released in 2018 by NITI Aayog. It is termed ‘AIForAll’ as it is focused on leveraging AI for inclusive growth in line with the Government policy of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.
  
  • Role of the Government has been clearly delineated to develop the research ecosystem, promote adoption and address skilling challenges.
  • The strategy also flags important issues like ethics, bias and privacy issues relating to AI and envisions Government promoting research in technology to address these concerns.
  • The focus is on sectors like agriculture, health and education where public investment and lead would be necessary.
• National AI Portal: It has been developed jointly by the National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom). The portal is meant to work as a “one stop digital platform" for all AI related developments in India.
• Responsible AI for Youth Programme: It is aimed at imparting education and skills in AI to students in government schools.

Way Forward

• By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.
• AI is rapidly penetrating into all the sectors of economy, if used empathetically and reasonably, it has the potential to change global social and economic interactions for the better.

Source: PIB