New Delhi: India needs to create new jobs to absorb the large number of workers rendered redundant by automation and put in place a regulatory framework to reap benefits of artificial intelligence use in areas such as health, farming, education, infrastructure and transportation, federal policy think tank NITI Aayog said on Monday.
In a ‘national strategy for artificial intelligence’, prepared to give the country an edge in this area, Niti Aayog suggested ways to promote adoption of machine learning in key areas of the economy guided by rules on ethics, privacy and intellectual property protection that are to be evolved by new institutions.
The think tank said its blueprint was aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence for economic growth, social development and inclusive growth and to make the country a model for emerging and developing economies.
The blueprint suggested that a robust model to use this technology will increase access and affordability of quality healthcare, enhance farmers’ income and reduce wastage, improve access to quality education, provide efficient connectivity to the urban population and help create smarter transportation modes.
The strategy paper said, “... promotion of job creation in new areas like data annotation needs to be identified and promoted, as these would have the potential of absorbing a large portion of the workforce that may find itself redundant due to increasing automation.”
The proposals come at a time when there is widespread concern about job losses on account of automation although it would result in new jobs, which require higher level of technical skills. “As technology increasingly disrupts the nature of jobs and shifts the benchmarks of technological aptitude, skilling and reskilling of workforce forms an integral part of our approach to adopting artificial intelligence,” said the strategy paper.
While promoting use of AI, which is driven by big data, development of new technology and products have to be based on fairness, accountability and transparency, said the paper. “Data is one of the primary drivers of artificial intelligence solutions, and thus appropriate handling of data, ensuring privacy and security is of prime importance. Challenges include data usage without consent, risk of identification of individuals through data and data selection bias, it said.