Overemphasis on Regulation Could Impede India's AI Growth: Nasscom Chief By CIOTechOutlook Team

Overemphasis on Regulation Could Impede India's AI Growth: Nasscom Chief

CIOTechOutlook Team | Saturday, 17 February 2024, 02:41 IST

Debjani Ghosh, president of technology industry association Nasscom, believes that an overemphasis on regulation could hamper India's potential in artificial intelligence. “The best way to distract the government is to get them focused on regulation. It will take them years and years to figure out what to do and how to do it,” she said at an event in New Delhi.

According to an IBM report, less than 35% of companies worldwide are effectively utilizing AI, which is a "terribly low number", she said.

“If we continue to think of AI from the lens of fear, we are not going to start thinking about how to deploy this thing at scale and how to make it work,” Ghosh added.

“We should all be racing to figure out how do we unlock the potential of AI. It is not happening because we are caught up in this massive debate of regulation. And frankly, none of us know what to regulate, because AI is changing on us,” Ghosh said.

In June last year, Nasscom released a set of guidelines outlining the “responsible” utilisation of generative artificial intelligence, as per ET.

The recommendations outlined responsibilities for researchers, developers, and consumers of generative AI models and applications. They also emphasized the significance of completing thorough risk assessments and retaining internal oversight throughout the lifecycle of a generative AI solution.

“We have to have a governance framework, but I think this is where the regulation mindset has to change. You cannot regulate for the next 50 years. At best you can regulate for the next five months,” Ghosh said, highlighting that the regulatory sandbox approach needs to be embraced as a mainstream regulation, not just as a proof of concept on the sidelines.