Questions raised over tall claims to make city world AI capital

Hyderabad: Are the State's higher education and information technology policies trying to build castles without strong foundations?

The question assumes significance following the statements of high authorities from the Telangana State Higher Education and Information Technology departments to make Hyderabad a world capital for Artificial intelligence.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior academician expressed concern over the education policy implementation going haywire moving from one extreme to another. Resulting in neither the faculty nor the students getting well-rooted for tangible and qualitative teaching and learning outcomes.

The reason is "bureaucratic validated policies dominating the academic landscape than the academics owning responsibilities to drive research and development and curriculum designing."

For example, the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has removed offering the logic subject from the Intermediate course, claiming students are not showing interest in taking the course. However, when asked, sources in the TSBIE said no awareness drives were conducted on importance of the subject and its usefulness.

"Logic includes mathematical logic. It is widely used in computer sciences, management, insurance banking and multiple fields, including emerging fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI)" However, the TSBIE offers computer courses, but fails to offer logic even as an add-on course for students; that shows how the higher-ups in TSBIE and its academic advisers let the study of logic go.

Secondly, the curriculum turns more curious at the under-graduate level in the State. When asked how AI make sense without a good grounding in cognitive studies, philosophy of mind, mind sciences and allied areas? A senior faculty member from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) said, "The popular view is that AI is a subject relating to information technology and computer sciences. The syllabus of it in almost all the State universities creates such a dominant view." But the case is different, when it comes to IIIT and IIT in Hyderabad. Even the Central University of Hyderabad facilitate students and researchers to take an interest in the allied subjects to acquire a comprehensive view of what AI is, its foundations, and how it evolved and operates, he added.

Without laying a strong foundation in academics the drive for AI would end up just another field of students to provide human capital for the companies rather than students becoming innovators and creators, he opined.