AI Economic Council to calibrate adoption pace: Survey

The Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, favoured an ‘AI Economic Council’ for India to calibrate the pace of adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the country, as it spotlighted the impact of the transformational technology on critical thinking and jobs.

By embedding labour realities and social stability priorities into AI policy, the AI Economic Council can ensure that AI advances productivity without eroding employment and the dignity of work, it said.

The institution must work closely with private sector firms to develop a roadmap for AI deployment over the next decade, outlining crucial details such as the profile of jobs affected, the geographies where displacement will be most concentrated, and the magnitude of jobs that will be both automated and augmented due to AI, the survey mooted.

“The AI Economic Council must ensure that deployment of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ does not come at the cost of ‘Human Intelligence’,” it asserted.

India is a labour-rich economy, and the unchecked replacement of the workforce by automation has destabilising effects, the survey cautioned.

“In this context, one of the most urgent responsibilities of an AI Economic Council is to calibrate the pace of AI adoption within the country,” said the Survey, which highlighted the power of transformational technology and its many nuances in a chapter dedicated to AI.

Such an exercise will help moderate the uncertainties surrounding the deployment of AI and inform about the roadmap and design of policies required to mitigate the adverse effects of AI on the economy. An exercise like this would also help in informing policymakers on the necessary developments to reinforce the education system in a way that makes students more capable in an AI-driven world.

Regulations, the Survey said, need to evolve and necessitate transparency reporting requirements similar to those for social media, as well as product registrations, to help track the rate of deployment.

Policymakers must also manage where and how AI is deployed. The manner in which AI is used will dictate the nature of the benefits accrued, it pointed out.

For instance, AI in education holds a lot of potential, provided it is used as a supplementing tool for teachers and students. “The widespread use of Generative AI by students as a substitute for creative and critical thinking ultimately does more harm than good in the long run,” it said. The Survey also echoed issues long-talked about by critics, including the impact of AI on cognitive and original thinking.

It sounded an alarm over the “skyrocketing” use of AI by students in universities and observed that a significant portion of cognitive tasks is being offloaded to language models. “Combined with the anxiety and depression inducing social media usage, students shirking the acquisition of skills such as sustained reading, critical thinking and analytical writing is only expected to make mental health issues much worse in the future. This will ultimately impact their productivity and their ability to contribute meaningfully to any work undertaken, perhaps even permanently denting their employment prospects,” the Survey warned.

It outlined the myriad challenges that policymakers will have to contend with as AI capabilities improve and applications proliferate. “Given the many uncertainties that loom over the horizon, governance will remain a continuous process of monitoring, learning, and course correction. MeitY’s proposed AI Governance Group, along with the technical committee assisting the group, establishes a strong foundation on which India can develop a light, incentive-based and risk-weighted governance approach,” it said.

HIGHLIGHTS

• One of the most urgent responsibilities of an AI Economic Council is to calibrate the pace of AI adoption within the country.
• The institution must work closely with private sector firms to develop a roadmap for AI deployment over the next decade.
• The AI Economic Council must ensure that the deployment of Artificial Intelligence does not come at the cost of Human Intelligence.
• Need to evolve and necessitate transparency reporting requirements similar to those for media.
• Policymakers must also manage where and how AI is deployed.