The first major multi-stakeholder coalition in India focused on the responsible development and deployment of AI technology, namely Coalition for Responsible Evolution of AI (CoRE-AI), was established during this week bringing together more than 30 stakeholders in the tech space with a focus on fostering innovation among Indian AI startups and ensuring industry academia and startup’s approach to regulating AI are heard by the government.
The coalition has its home at The Dialogue tech think tank based in New Delhi and comprises key AI players from Big Tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to IT giants like Infosys as well as highly respected educational institutions such Ashoka University, IIM Bangalore among others, and several leading AI start-ups including BharatGPT-creator CoRover.ai and Beatoven.ai that is an AI music start-up.
This mainly aims to establish public trust in AI through voluntary industry guidelines and standards for the technology, strong AI regulatory frameworks, public-private partnerships; addressing bias and fairness in AI algorithms; transparency in AI operations; upholding user privacy and data protection.
“Government welcomes support, and interventions from a wide range of players who can bring the relevant information to the table on this aspect,” said Mr. S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology).
“And taking all these inputs no doubt we will have a robust framework where India will also be able not just use it for its own people but play a leadership role globally. I’m confident that CoRE-AI forum will contribute towards achieving this larger national goal,” he said via video statement.
The central government’s Cabinet approved the IndiaAI mission in March with a budget outlay of ₹10,372 crore envisioning making “AI in India” “make AI work for India”.
According to interviews given by CoRE-AI to The Hindu, it will adopt a principles-based approach towards risk assessments that allows flexibility in addressing AI’s diverse challenges and will develop guidelines and contribute to a robust governance framework “to help create an innovative and reliable AI ecosystem in India”.
“The Coalition will differentiate between regulating AI and regulating responsible AI practices, aiming to establish overarching principles for ethical AI development and deployment. This nuance will be essential as it shifts the focus from merely imposing restrictions on AI technologies to fostering an environment where ethical considerations, fairness, and transparency are integral to AI development and deployment,” CoRE AI told The Hindu.
Additionally, the coalition would focus on understanding market forces impact on adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as provide clear direction when it comes to demand and governance frameworks ‘to boost confidence and innovation among startups,’ one of their key areas of emphasis was cited by the entity.
“For the maximum collective good that needs explicitly collaborative work done jointly between start-ups, capital, policy-makers, big techs academia; yes even users. Only through consistent conversations combined with joined actions shall we ensure that we are innovating at the scale along with transparency that meets the requirements of AI.” Ms. Suparna Singh CEO & Co-Founder Start Up Frammer Ai & Former President & CEO NDTV Suparna Singh is a Member of Executive Committee CoRE-AI.
CoRE-AI’s four key Working Groups that will help the coalition implement its responsible AI plan include: Human-Centered AI, which ensures that AI development is based on human rights and social values; AI and Innovation, which concentrates on fostering and exhibiting AI innovation in India; AI Governance, that develops frameworks and guidelines for ethical as well as responsible governance of artificial intelligence; DPI and AI, which examines the use of artificial intelligence in government welfare delivery and digital inclusion as well as public-private partnerships in DPI.
Late last year IBM , Meta along with some prominent universities like IIT Bombay and a group of tech start-ups and foundations created a global “AI Alliance,” another path to responsible AI including the potential competitive pressure on CoRE-AI. The main objective of the alliance is to challenge the dominance of established players such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Google or Amazon in Artificial Intelligence arena compelling open innovation in Al.
Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Consortium (AIKC), launched in March this year by 12 research institutions and think tanks joining forces to form a consortium dedicated to promoting multi-stakeholder approach towards AI governance is another new entrant to Indian ecosystem of Artificial Intelligence Governance.
