Roundtable Discussion on Artificial Intelligence: Social Impact & Implications



The Governance & Public Policy Initiative organised a roundtable discussion on “Artificial Intelligence: Social Impact & Implications” on June 27, 2019. This was the first roundtable discussion  organised under the XVII Lok Sabha.

The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been garnering a lot of attention off late. Touted to bring about a technological revolution, it is posited as a solution for many issues that today’s world is facing including solving a range of societal issues. But what is artificial intelligence and how does it work? What are the current capabilities, promises, and limitations of the technology? Through this discussion, we examined the ways in which AI is being conceptualized and deployed to address persistent development challenges such as in healthcare, education, agriculture, and infrastructure and mobility in India along with the current limitations of developing such AI systems in India.

To explore the topic in detail, three experts- Mr Monojit Choudhury, Researcher, Microsoft Research Lab; Ms Urvashi Aneja, Founding Director, Tandem Research; and Ms Pooja Rao, R & D Head & Co-founder, Qure.ai along with Vikrom Mthur, Founding Director, Tandem Research explained through their presentations the various aspects and implications of AI in India. They discussed what AI really is, vital societal implications of the growth of these technologies, followed by examples of its applications in healthcare which happens to be one of the persistent development challenges of India.

The discussion was attended by more than 20 newly elected Lok Sabha as well as Rajya Sabha Members and political leaders.