Coordinators: Prof. M Sai Baba and Dr. VV Binoy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is identified as one of the emerging technologies which would have bearing on the lives of the people and society at large in the coming years. Government and Media have started extensive discussions on the impact of AI on our Society. In its nascent stage, AI evokes mixed responses and there is a need for addressing them and to enable society to make informed decisions.
As part of a project titled “Managing Public Perceptions and Public Acceptances of Public Risks Associated with New and Emerging Technologies Through Science and Technology Communications”, NIAS has organised a meeting on 11th April, to discuss the status of the application of AI, the progress it is likely to make in the immediate future and the implications it is likely to have on various strata of the society.
Participants of the meeting included experts from both academics and IT industry, TCS, Accenture, Wadhawani Institute of Artificial Intelligence, VideoKen, BARC, NISCAIR and LIBA.
The daylong meeting deliberated on the current status of the development of AI, the domains where they are finding applications and strategies for mitigating the risk perceived by the general public. The focus of the meeting has been to come up with effective strategies for communicating a realistic picture of the impact of AI, to various stakeholders of the culturally diverse Indian society.
Prof. M. Sai Baba, welcomed the participants and the meeting started with the address of Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy which has set the agenda for the meeting. In his talk, Prof. L.M. Patnaik, traced back to the beginning of AI and highlighted the current status of its applications. Each of the participants highlighted particular aspect of the applications of AI and the cost and benefits associated with it. There was a discussion about the methodology of communicating the rapid developments happening in this domain to the public and to avoid baseless fears. The meeting ended with Dr. V.V. Binoy, thanking the participants.
