TAG: GS 3: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
THE CONTEXT: In a significant development, the Union Cabinet has greenlit the IndiaAI Mission, a transformative initiative with a substantial budget of Rs 10,372 crore over the next five years.
EXPLANATION:
- The mission aims to address a critical gap in India’s AI ecosystem, focusing on computing hardware, startup support, and the creation of essential datasets.
- IndiaAI is knowledge portal, research organisation and an ecosystem building initiative. It stands to unite and promote collaborations with various entities in India’s AI ecosystem.
- The portal offers the latest and up-to-date information and analysis on AI as news and article, provides detailed information on the key ecosystem players, and provides insights into the global and Indian AI landscape.
- The mission aligns with the vision of “Making AI in India” and “Making AI Work for India.”
- Over 10,000 GPUs (graphics processing units) will be made available to stakeholders over the next 18-24 months to facilitate AI development
Addressing Computing Hardware Challenges:
- Private Sector Subsidies:
- The approval signals the government’s intent to subsidize private companies venturing into AI computing. ‘
- This move aims to encourage the establishment of data centers within the country, offering startups access to computing capacity for testing and building generative AI models, a benefit enjoyed by global counterparts like Perplexity AI in the United States.
- Compute Infrastructure Goals:
- The IndiaAI Mission targets the establishment of a computing capacity exceeding 10,000 GPUs.
- Emphasis will be on selecting the most advanced GPUs, crucial for building large AI systems.
- The government plans to implement this through a public-private partnership model, with 50% viability gap funding, allowing private entities to add more compute capacity within the budget if prices decrease.
Supporting Deeptech Startups and Datasets:
- Financial Backing for Startups:
- Rs 2,000 crore of the total outlay is allocated for financing deeptech startups at various growth stages.
- This initiative aims to boost the growth of AI startups in the country.
- IndiaAI Datasets Platform:
- The creation of an IndiaAI Datasets Platform is proposed to leverage non-personal datasets for AI innovation.
- The platform will host “high-quality” AI-ready datasets, providing crucial resources for AI development.
Setting Up Innovation Research Centre:
- IndiaAI Innovation Research Centre:
- With an earmarked budget of close to Rs 2,000 crore, the government plans to establish an Innovation Research Centre focused on developing and deploying large foundational models.
- This includes support for BTech, Mtech, and PhD candidates, emphasizing AI research in premier educational institutions.
Alignment with Overall Policy:
- Comprehensive Strategy:
- The IndiaAI Mission aligns with the government’s broader policy initiatives, following the recent approval of chip projects worth Rs 1.26 lakh crore.
- The government is strategically investing in electronics manufacturing, considering it a key economic driver, and is willing to spend in the initial phase to kickstart production.
- European Parallel:
- The strategy mirrors the European Union’s approach to enable access to hardware for startups, emphasizing the importance of hardware in building large-scale AI models.
AI Regulations and Safety Considerations:
- Global Legislative Landscape:
- While India is making strides in AI infrastructure, questions arise regarding regulatory frameworks.
- The IT Ministry’s recent advisory on generative AI deployment faced global criticism, highlighting the ongoing global debate on legislating AI, as witnessed in the EU’s AI Act and the US White House Executive Order on AI.
- AI Bill of Rights:
- The US’s blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights offers a potential model for future AI regulation, emphasizing consumer empowerment and clear guidelines on AI adoption by law enforcement agencies.