AI and the idea of development
2020 is the year of AI for Telangana, but what does that mean to the people of the state? Will it result in more jobs or human development in the state is yet to be decided by time. But what is clear though, AI is yet another data collection and sharing exercise for the private sector. Training artificial intelligence algorithms needs large amounts of data, which Indian companies do not yet possess.
India has been trying to solve this lack of data problem by building several platforms like
IndiaStack to share people’s data to private sector for building a data economy. The upcoming data protection bill has provisions specifically allowing the government to do this for AI. This essentially translates into no or minimal control for citizen’s personal data, to enable this new national economy.
The national government is yet to determine which department will implement the national AI strategy in the country with at least three AI strategy reports being published. Telangana has already decided to implement its AI strategy by signing MoUs with research institutions and private companies. The state’s intentions to reshape its industry to global practices is laudable but could become a larger problem to its population.
In trying to be in the forefront of technology implementations in India, Telangana has been experimenting with new technologies on its population without safeguards. An important example where technology directly affected individual rights is the case of Aadhaar voter id linking first initiated in telangana. Millions of voters could not vote across the state during assembly elections of 2018 for this techno adventurism.
There has been no official investigation into these voter deletions and the issue is now out of popular discussion. The state election commission has now initiated a pilot to use facial recognition for identifying duplicate voters. If reports are to be believed this is being carried out because of the IT department’s recommendation to use facial recognition after the trails in pension distribution. The use of AI for facial recognition in Telangana is deeply problematic without a law limiting its role in governance.
By pushing experimental technology such as facial recognition everywhere, telangana is driving its software industry. This is not only affecting the state but the country when these technologies are considered as best practices and implemented by the Ministry of Electronics and IT. As a society we are increasingly becoming digital and this is being sold to us as development without actually looking into increasing control the government is gaining over the society.
AI and ML are still at experimental stage and it should be treated that way. It might have potential to leapfrog us into a better society, but it also does possess the same potential to create new problems for our society. It is interesting the IT minister of Telangana recognises it and is also driving the need for ethics framework in the space.