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Overview : Artificial Intelligence in India
It was revealed in a recent survey that India is the 13th most advanced country in the world in terms of artificial intelligence development. Bangalore is the Information Technology (IT) hub of India. It has the most number of AI development companies.
The city is known for its start-ups and technological advancements. This is because of the large number of educational institutes in the city. There are many reputed Btech colleges in Bangalore, which provide the companies with an abundance of skilled manpower.
Artificial Intelligence
In simple terms, Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human processes by machines. These processes include learning, reasoning, and self-correction. AI can be categorized i.e. Weak and Strong. Weak AI, also known as narrow AI is a system that is designed to perform a particular task.
An AI is called a strong AI when no human intervention is required while solving a problem. While businesses can find new ways to function using AI tools, ethical questions are raised because of the use of AI. This is because AI tools are only as smart as the data they are given by humans. There is potential for human bias because the human selects what data should be given for training.
History
In the last few years, a number of new AI-based companies have come up in the country. They provide services ranging from healthcare to education. The government is also partnering with various companies to implement and adapt AI policies. Around 200 AI-based start-ups exist in India that work in different sectors.
AI has progressed so much in the last few years because experts from different fields of advanced computing have come together to develop the technology.
A lot of big companies such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are setting up AI labs. Even the big IT players like Infosys and Wipro are investing in this sector.
- A good example of a company successfully using AI technology is Swiggy. Since 2017, the application increased its interactions from 2 billion to 40 billion in 2019.
- Swiggy leans on AI-based technology to continue growing. The company can implement machine learning to train its system to differentiate between vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes on the basis of images. The same process can be used to teach the system languages which provide the best results.
- AI has been around for a long time but in the past decade, it has witnessed tremendous growth. On mobile phones, digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, etc., have been around for a while.
- Retailers like Flipkart and Amazon use AI to predict customer behaviour. In Silicon Valley, an AI engineer can earn between $135,000 – $160,000, making it the highest paying skill job.
Limitations of Artificial Intelligence
At the end of the day, machines are machines and cannot act like human beings. They are programmed to perform certain tasks but nothing more than that.
They are limited in terms of their creativity, understanding, thinking ability and. Hence, AI is not a complete replacement for humans.
However, there is a fear amongst some people that in future robots will dominate humans. However, these are unrealistic fears that exist because of the relation between popular culture and AI.
The quality of data is the biggest limitation for the India AI market. The diversity in demographics and languages pose a major obstacle.
India’s AI-based start-ups continue to be under-invested by Risk Capital providers, despite major changes. China has established itself as one of the leaders in AI-based technology.
India is slowly catching up, because of the increase in government funding in AI and skilled manpower. Niti Aayog, an initiative by the government, released a report revealing the strategy for AI development in the country. The report stated the 5 sectors that AI research would focus on, which are healthcare, agriculture, education, infrastructure and smart cities, transportation, and smart mobility.
This move is similar to the one that China took in 2017 with its AI development plans. Different problems are faced by companies in India. One of these is high initials cost of implementing AI-based solutions. India further has many legal and privacy-related implications which do not exist in China.
There are various collaborations and partnerships that the country involves itself in order to develop AI technology. These partnerships are not just in the country but also across the world.
Global corporations like NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google have set up AI labs in India. Microsoft is working closely with the state government in Andhra Pradesh to predict dropout rates in government schools. India is getting serious about AI. With a large amount of talent in the sector along with the government’s support, the country is making a mark in the AI world market.
However, China and the US are still far ahead, and India is playing catch up to them. A growth is required to reach their level, but Yeah India is going in the right direction.
