How is eBay able to send personalized messages to each of its customers? Is someone communicating with us on the chatbots?
The answer is artificial intelligence. In simple words, artificial intelligence is a group of technologies that mimic human beings or activities of human beings. Hollywood movies and science fiction novels depict AI as a triumphant human-like robot. However, the current evolution of AI technologies is neither that petrifying nor so advanced. AI has relevance for various industries, the common people and even governments.
The term “Artificial Intelligence” was first given by John McCarthy, an American computer scientist. The AI, primarily, gets categorized in two ways-
Narrow AI vs. General AI:
Narrow AI (ANI) describes an AI that is programmed to perform a single task or a set number of tasks. For example, IBM's Deep Blue, the chess-playing computer. It would not have been able to win a game of snakes and ladders. Narrow AI has experienced immense developments. Complex algorithms are used that can process documents, drive vehicles and beat chess champions. Siri, Google Assistant and Cortana are some of the examples of narrow AI.
General AI (AGI) describes an AI which can be used to complete a wide range of tasks. As such, it is much closer to human intelligence. We have no technology at the present moment that can be considered close to AGI. Some researchers do not think we can reach General AI at all. Some think we will take more than 200 years. Let us wait for a time traveller to tell us when AGI would emerge! We also have "Superintelligence" which is, often, used to refer to general and strong AI at the point at which it surpasses human intelligence.
After looking at this simplified image of AI, and a deliberate attempt to disregard debatable issues that surround it, let us understand AI’s relevance for India. Countries all over the world are realizing the benefits of AI. China and the UK estimate that 26% and 10% of their GDPs, respectively, come from AI-related activities [1]. According to a discussion paper of NITI Aayog, released in 2018, AI has the potential to add about $1 trillion to the Indian economy. Besides, providing an economic impact, it also leads to a transformative impact i.e. improvement in the quality of life. Increased healthcare access, inclusive financial growth, building smart cities and infrastructure to meet the urban demands are some of the examples where AI can provide technological advantages.
AI, thus, is expected to provide immense value to the following sectors:
Health: The issues regarding access to healthcare facilities continue to prevail in India, especially areas that lack connectivity or have a limited supply of medical professionals. Some of the AI-based solutions for such issues are- AI-driven diagnostics, personalised implementation, early identification and reporting of potential pandemics.
Agriculture: The promise of a food revolution and meeting the increased demand for food can be fulfilled by AI (The need to produce 50% more food globally). The challenges like unassured irrigation, overuse/misuse of fertilizers, pesticides etc. can be solved by AI. Some use cases include advanced detection of pest attacks, improvement in crop yield through real-time advisory etc.
Retail: This sector has been one of the early adopters of AI-based solutions such as image-based research, providing personalized suggestions and efficient delivery management.
Manufacturing: It is considered that Manufacturing industry would be one of the greatest beneficiaries of AI, thus helping us to enable the idea of ‘Factory for Future’, to enable processes and machinery for responding to unfamiliar circumstances by making smart decisions. Some of the areas include- engineering (like R&D), Supply chain management (predicting demand), production (achieving cost reduction and improving efficiency) etc. Some of these areas assume a lot of importance against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging global developments and economic relations.
Education: The issues like quality and access in the education sector of our country can be solved by AI. The use cases include augmenting the learning experience through personalized learning like a personalized curriculum based on a child’s needs and abilities, expediting administrative tasks by automation and predicting student intervention to reduce dropouts.
Energy: Potential use cases in the energy sector include effective energy system modelling and forecasting to increase efficiency in power balancing and usage. In renewable energy systems, the fantastic developments like smart grids and smart meters help in saving household energy, ensuring proper transmission and reducing emissions.
How has India fared when it comes to AI and related developments? This becomes a pertinent question especially because of the changing global scenarios.
The government has formed a task force on Artificial Intelligence for India’s Economic Transformation by the Commerce and Industry Department of the Government of India. A INR 3,660 crore national mission on cyber-physical system technologies has been approved that involves extensive use of AI, machine learning, deep learning, big data analytics, quantum computing, data science and predictive analytics. The mission seeks to propel national initiatives in health, education, energy etc. In this process, 40, 00 jobs in short-run and 200,000 jobs in long-run would be created.
The government has also launched a portal- INDIAai. This National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Portal has been formed by National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and supported by National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The portal functions as a platform for all AI-related advancements in India, with sharing of useful resources like articles, investment funding news etc.
Machine translation across Indian languages and English would be an exciting area of AI research in India. The Ministry of IT is planning to start a Rs 400-500 crore project on speech-to-speech machine translation [2]. This will seek to solve the problem of communication due to the diversity of languages in India.
However, some challenges continue such as lack of manpower, clean and quality data. There is no institutional mechanism for maintaining quality data. According to a report published by PwC in 2018, despite all the benefits of AI, people have concerns regarding data privacy and are apprehensive with regard to sharing data for a better experience. Another cultural challenge is that failing in an attempt at big innovation and grand goals implies a loss of face. Therefore, there is limited space for experimentation. All such challenges present a picture where India is just at the starting point of a promising long road. With its demographic dividend and premier institutions like IITs and other research universities, India can build upon its research capabilities and revolutionize various socio-economic sectors.
Sources:
1. NITI Aayog discussion paper, 2018
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