Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has highlighted the “scary” a part of Artificial Intelligence (AI), noting {that a} multi-pronged method is required to guarantee cybersecurity in society.
Addressing the valedictory session of the G20 Conference on Crime and Security within the Age of NFTs, AI and Metaverse held in Gurugram, Vaishnaw spoke about cybersecurity challenges, Big Tech monopoly and main steps by the federal government to cut back the digital divide.
The minister in his speech said that cybersecurity has been a posh problem and AI goes to improve the complexity multi-fold.
Talking about AI, he talked about what Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated just lately when he was requested whether or not AI can do fundamental analysis. Quoting Altman, the Union minister stated: “AI can’t perform basic research but we are not far away from the day when AI will be doing the same basic research that the brightest minds have done.”
Vaishnaw referred to as the phenomenon ‘scary’ as he added: “We have to have a strategy [for cybersecurity] at the national level, another one at the organisational level and one more strategy at the individual level. We cannot leave it thinking that there is a firewall and we can be secured with it.”
He additionally highlighted that if there’s a cyber-assault in a single nation, different international locations want to collaborate and provide you with widespread options. He additionally spoke about growing new instruments to cut back cybersecurity challenges.
“One of such solutions was so effective that we successfully blocked millions of fraudulent accounts which were used to conduct cyber frauds while working with Ministry of Home Affairs, Telecom Ministry, IT Ministry and state government,” he stated. He added that that type of method wanted to be taken on the worldwide degree additionally.
However, Vaishnaw stated efforts want to be made at nationwide and world ranges for creating cyber consciousness and following cyber guidelines for cyber hygiene — precisely the way in which authorized in addition to academic constructions have been made to train everybody to drive on one facet of the highway when freeway networks have been created.
Democratisation of Tech
According to Vaishnaw, one main goal of the Digital India mission was that know-how must be democratised. He additional stated in lots of components of the world, a number of large tech firms management know-how and requested: “Is it the right model for the country or democracy or society which is evolving so fast?”
The Union minister then spoke about an alternate choice which is required for the democratisation of know-how. It has three elements which embrace that in no case ought to know-how be cornered by a handful of firms, everybody ought to have entry to know-how and know-how ought to embody all of the areas which have an effect on the day-to-day lifetime of a standard individual. Needless to say, to obtain these targets, the federal government took the general public-personal partnership.
The first instance on this case is India’s UPI revolution. The UPI platform — an open platform accessible to everybody — was developed by the federal government utilizing public funds. Later, banks, startups, and SMEs joined the platform.
“Close to 350 million citizens of India have joined this platform and the result is a payment system which today does about — on an annualised basis — $2 trillion worth transactions and the average time for the settlement of the transaction is less than two seconds,” he added.
However, comparable platforms have been created for various wants. For e-commerce, there may be Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and CoWIN for healthcare that was created in the course of the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Digital Divide
Literacy, lack of infrastructure and never having the ability to use already accessible instruments are three main points which were the core of the digital divide. Vaishnaw stated: “If we don’t work on digital inclusion today, the gap will increase at an exponential pace.”
He additional said that shut to 850 million folks in India have entry to the web “but that is not enough”. As per the minister, the federal government is working to convey each village and each a part of the nation underneath good excessive-high quality 4G and 5G in addition to broadband protection.
“We have a programme to reach the farthest corner of the country — a 4G saturation programme. We are investing about $4.6 billion to bring telecom services to the areas where it may not make good commercial sense for the private sector to take 4G services,” Vaishnaw famous.
Additionally, he said that by now, the federal government has invested $8.3 billion in creating an optical fibre grid in order that each village will get connectivity. This is now augmented by investing one other $13 billion underneath the BharatNet program.
“The way we have invested in highways and power grids in the past in developed countries and those which are developing today, the same kind of effort needs to be put in making sure that our internet connectivity, the optical fibre and the telecom network reach the last person in society,” he stated.
