Since the launch of ChatGPT last year, AI has captured the public imagination. Popular narratives oscillate between unbridled enthusiasm about AI’s potential to advance societal progress and doomsday scenarios about the existential risks it poses to humankind.
Both narratives are misleading exaggerations. They not only distract attention from AI’s current harms, but also get in the way of building the incentive structures, capacities and partnerships needed to develop AI that is in the public interest.
Setting the narrative straight is particularly important in a country like India. Unlike in industrialised economies where many of the dominant use cases are focused on enterprise solutions, in India, AI is positioned as a means to leapfrog persistent development challenges. As AI applications are developed to fill gaps in public service delivery in critical social sectors, such as healthcare and education, their usage will impact people’s access to basic services and opportunities.
At the same time, institutional capacities in young democracies like India for addressing harms and mitigating risks are weak and fragmented—it’s not possible to leapfrog institutional development. The incentives to regulate AI are also clouded by a belief that AI represents the future and modernity, that developing countries like India have missed the boat on previous industrial revolutions and cannot afford to miss the boat on this one.
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Denne historien er fra January 15, 2024-utgaven av India Today.
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He gave the beat to the world
He would pick up the rhythms of each experience of mobility and weave them into his taals. Thus it was that he reflected joy and laughter in rhythmic cycles...such was the magic of Zakir's fingersText and photographs by Raghu Rai
KERALA TOURISM CAMPAIGN, 1989 - TICKETS TO PARADISE
All it took was a catchy tagline-'God's Own Country'-for the world to discover Kerala's wealth of natural beauty. It remains among the best tourism ad campaigns, earning the state a place among top 10 international destinations
SPIRITUALITY - THE GURUS OF COOL
Among the cult Indian gurus, no one had a bigger hold on western minds than 'Osho' Rajneesh. He's also perhaps the role model for the enterprise-building gurus of today
RETAIL SHOPPING - THE MALL MANIA
Shopping malls, a 1990s innovation in India, changed the way the Indian middle class shops. Their success now lies in being 'shoppertainment' destinations, offering something for everyone
CULINARY RENAISSANCE, 1978 - TANDOORI NIGHTS
ITC's Bukhara and Dum Pukht turned the world to tandoori cuisine and had an enormous impact on the F&B industry. Decades on, they are still a pit-stop for celebrities and heads of state visiting Delhi
INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH - REVENGE OF THE NATIVE
Rushdie lit the way but Indian writing in English has taken a life of its own in the past few decades, with translated Indian fiction most recently having its moment in the sun
INDIAN ART - A BRUSH WITH GOLD DUST
The 1990s economic liberalisation came as oxygen, lighting up the Indian art scene. Today, artworks by established masters routinely go for astronomical amounts
FESTIVAL OF INDIA, 1982 - CULTURE CAPITAL
The Festival of India grew into a symbol of our 'soft power', introducing our art and aesthetics to a global audience while also helping rebrand our domestic products
THE INDIPOP TREND - DISCO GOES DESI
For ages, the film song ruled. Nothing else was audible. Then came Nazia, charioteered by Biddu, and Indian ears went into a pleasant madness. Literally, Disco Deewane. A whole genre was born
SHOLAY 1975 - THE BIRTH OF THE FANDEMIC
India had seen hits before. But Sholay seared into its collective psyche like a badland bullet. The effect was on a scale never seen before- one film creating a new mass folk culture. And a trail of monster blockbusters that still continues
