PM to Attend Fourth Edition of NITI Lecture Series on Artificial Intelligence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the fourth edition of the NITI Lecture Series focused on leveraging artificial intelligence for inclusive growth, according to an official statement. Modi will attend the lecture series in which the key note address will be delivered by Jensen Huang, president and co-Founder of US-based technology firm NVIDIA Corporation, the Niti Aayog said. The government think tank said the 2018 theme for the lecture series AI for All: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Growth is part of the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence aimed at evolving a robust ecosystem in India for AI research and adoption. Union ministers, policy makers, experts from different walks of life along with Niti Aayog vice chairman, CEO, members and other senior officials will also be present on the occasion.

The Union Budget 2018 had mandated the Niti Aayog to come up with a national program on employing artificial intelligence towards national development and since the Aayog has published a National Strategy for artificial intelligence (AI). The Aayog said it has signed statements of intent (SoI) with industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft and IBM to leapfrog India into global arena of future technologies and enable use of AI in key, high gain sectors of social development — healthcare, agriculture, smart mobility, education and infrastructure. The Aayog said it has launched multiple projects in areas of precision agriculture, creating AI led healthcare solutions, and bridging India’s diversity of languages by creating a digital Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat platform using Natural Language Processing (NLP). The NLP is a system of protocols which allow machines or computers to understand and interact with human speech and symbols.

The Niti Aayog said it has also identified barriers that need to be addressed to achieve success in use of artificial intelligence with the aim to use the technology across all sectors. It has also proposed setting up of a Center of Research Excellence (CORE) to focus on developing better understanding of existing core research, it said. The NITI Lectures: Transforming India was inaugurated by Modi in August 2016 featuring eminent speakers from across the world. The first key note address India and the Global Economy was delivered by the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Bill Gates, Co-Founder, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, delivered the second lecture in November 2016, and in May 2017, Michael Porter, the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, had delivered the third lecture of the series. – Business Standard