The governance sector especially has seen a significant rise in the potential to utilise AI, and the unique nature of this field raises several concerns. This roundtable will involve a discussion on the landscape of AI and governance in India, and attempt to determine an effective and progressive system of policy and regulation that could address these concerns.

Though the adoption of AI in the public sector is still in its nascent stages, the government of India is taking various steps to increase the scale of adoption. The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has constituted a task force on AI to facilitate India’s economic transformation. This year’s Union Budget also recognised the need for government investment in research, training and skill development in robotics, AI, digital manufacturing, Big Data intelligence and Quantum communications.

The process of designing a governance ecosystem is a complex one, and AI poses several pre-existing ethical and legal for each application within this ecosystem. The effectiveness of AI and Machine learning inherently depends on the availability of data, and it is predicted that the most imminent challenge will also involve the same, especially as India becomes increasingly data dense and the government is entrusted with its citizens’ data. These challenges could range from the collection, storage, and use of data, to having to answer questions of fairness, safety, and prevention of misuse.

This roundtable seeks to deliberate on these questions and more so as to understand how to optimise the use of AI in governance for the public interest. In doing so, the roundtable will use preliminary research that CIS has undertaken into the use of AI and governance in India as an entry point into broader discussions on the challenges and benefits and way forward for AI.