India and Generative AI

Aug 31, 2023

This editorial is based on Good and bad: On India and artificial intelligence which was published in The Hindu on 05/06/2023. It talks about Generative AI and how India can harness its potential while avoiding adverse effects.

Prelims: Generative AI, Deepfakes, ChatGPT, Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), INDIAai

Mains: Generative AI – Benefits, Threats and Way Forward

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is AI that can create new data. There are many instances of generative AI in the world today, most commonly used to generate text, images, and code in response to users’ requests, even if they are capable of more.

Their widespread adoption really embellished their capabilities, leading to awe, then worry. OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot mimics intelligence very well; today, it has become synonymous with the abilities of generative AI at large. In the last few years, AI models backed by neural networks trained on very large datasets and with access to sufficient computing power have been used to do good, such as finding new antibiotics and alloys, for clever entertainment and cultural activities, and for many banal tasks, but it has caught attention most notably with its ability to falsify data. The world is past being able to reliably differentiate between data that faithfully reflects reality and data made to look that way by bad-faith actors using AI.

Generative AI is a type of AI system that can create new content or data that resembles human-made content, such as text, images, music, code, etc. It works by using neural networks to learn from large amounts of data and then generate outputs based on the patterns and rules it has learned.

Generative AI is a powerful and promising technology that can bring many benefits to India and its people. However, it also poses many challenges and risks that need to be addressed by effective and responsible regulation. India should adopt a proactive and balanced approach to generative AI implementation that ensures its safety, security, and ethical use.

Drishti Mains Question

Discuss the potential benefits and challenges of generative AI for India's development and security. Suggest some measures that India should take to harness the opportunities and mitigate the risks of generative AI.

Q1. With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? (2020)

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only (b) 1, 3 and 4 only (c) 2, 4 and 5 only (d) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Ans: (b)