VP calls for AI solutions

New Delhi [India]: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday called for tapping the potential of revolutionary technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver benefits to the people and enhance the quality of life.
In this regard, Naidu urged educational institutions, researchers, and developers to come out with practical AI solutions in the fields of agriculture, health, and education. Enumerating possible applications for AI, Naidu suggested the industry and developers to work towards solutions for precision agriculture to ensure quality farm output, to bring about efficient grading of the produce, and to enable better price discovery for farmers.
He also suggested exploring AI-based smart solutions in health such as remote diagnosis, and automatic translation of English texts to Indian languages in education.
Addressing a gathering at IIT Jodhpur after laying the foundation of fabrication laboratory for Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) Naidu said, “If such solutions can be scaled up, even a small gain in efficiency and productivity can bring positive change in the lives of millions of people.”
Naidu remarked that technologies like AI and AIoT have been revolutionising many sectors of the global economy in the last decade.
He said that the ultimate aim of science and technology is to transform the lives of the people. “That should be the aim for the development of AI too”, he added.
Reflecting on the possibilities of AI in governance, Naidu advised governments to explore using AI to improve the timely delivery of services. He mentioned the example of Direct Benefit Transfer through Jan-Dhan accounts and said that this has plugged leakages and protected people from exploitation to a great extent.
Therefore, he also urged universities to work with local governments and develop intelligent solutions in governance and welfare.
The Vice President further observed that such collaboration can give exposure to the students, test their knowledge in the real world, and enable them to come out with innovative solutions to some of society’s long-standing problems.
Touching upon the economic potential of AI, Naidu noted that AI has the potential to add 957 billion US dollars or 15 per cent of the current gross value added to India’s economy by 2035.
Highlighting that AI could possibly displace many routine jobs, Naidu stressed the importance of skilling and training youth to match the demands of changing job markets in the time of Industrial Revolution 4.0.
He suggested making basic courses in computing and data science mandatory for students across disciplines to keep students abreast of the latest technological developments. “This is absolutely important in today’s data-driven world”, Naidu added.
Lauding the recent decision of 14 engineering colleges across eight states to offer courses in regional languages, Naidu called for more such professional courses in higher education in Indian languages. He also said that AI holds immense potential in the promotion of Indian languages by way of an automatic translation from English and other languages.