India focused on practical applications of AI to solve population-scale challenges: Ashwini Vaishnaw

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said India is focused on practical applications of AI, including enterprise productivity, and solutions for population-scale challenges such as healthcare, agriculture, and climate change.

Speaking at a research symposium at the AI Impact Summit, the minister also expressed happiness over the strong participation and optimism shown by young people at an AI Expo on Tuesday. He informed that about 2.5 lakh attendees, mostly under the age of 30, took part across the exhibition area.

"It was a phenomenal response when I interacted with the young minds. I was so surprised by the optimism that most of the young people expressed towards this opportunity which is coming for them," Vaishnaw said.

The minister said he was feeling hopeful for a totally new future for India and for the world. "We, in India, are very focused on AI in the edge, AI for use cases, AI for solving real-world problems, AI for improving the productivity in the enterprises, for population-scale problems like healthcare, like agriculture, like climate change. These are things we are focussed on here in India. And the AI submit brings that opportunity," he said.

The minister asked participants of the symposium to come out with solid concrete suggestions on how to make AI safe. AI is a great tool and should be used for the benefit of humans.

The India AI Impact Summit, one of the country's largest global gatherings on artificial intelligence, has brought together policymakers, industry leaders and technology experts, and deliberations are on around AI innovation, governance and real-world applications in New Delhi.