The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced on Tuesday that the government intends to unveil a draft regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) by June or July. Speaking at the opening session of the Nasscom leadership summit in a two-day event, Chandrasekhar highlighted the government's commitment to leveraging AI for economic growth while addressing potential risks and harms.
"We are actively working on a draft AI regulation framework, scheduled for release in June or July this year. The objective is to harness the potential of AI for economic growth and simultaneously establish safeguards to prevent misuse," stated Chandrasekhar.
Emphasizing the government's determination to cultivate AI-skilled individuals, he added, "We will fully exploit the potential of AI but set up the guardrails as well to prevent misuse. We are today seen by the world at the forefront of harnessing AI technology. We are all for deploying AI across use cases, from farms to factories, and we want to use AI for economic growth, healthcare, agriculture, and farmer productivity."
The government has long been planning to introduce an AI regulation framework. In May 2023, Chandrasekhar had previously announced plans to release the initial draft of the framework, but the document has yet to be made public.
Considering the widespread and boundary-agnostic nature of the Internet and AI, Chandrasekhar stressed the importance of establishing a global governance framework to address the safety and trust aspects of AI.
Earlier statements by Chandrasekhar outlined the government's approach to AI regulation, which involves setting principles and compiling a comprehensive list of harms and criminalities associated with the technology. Instead of regulating AI at specific developmental stages, the government prefers to provide clear guidelines for platforms, with a particular emphasis on addressing issues like bias and misuse during model training.
Regarding the escalating internet usage, Chandrasekhar mentioned that the current online population of 900 million is expected to reach 1.2 billion soon, although a specific timeline was not provided.
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