AI in current form no threat to jobs: Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Artificial Intelligence as a technology in its current form is largely task-oriented and not capable of dealing with a situation where logic and reasoning are needed, according to Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who noted that he does not see any threat to job loss from it. "While AI is disruptive we do not see in the next few years the so-called threat of replacing the jobs. Because of the current stage of the development of AI is very task-oriented and not reasoning, logic and etc," Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics and Technology said at a press conference here held to highlight the initiatives taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government so far.

"Jobs usually have reasoning and logic and AI is not as sophisticated at this point," the minister said. On the AI regulation front, he said the government will regulate it taking into consideration the aspects of user harm.

"We will safeguard digital citizens through this technology," he said. Companies willing to operate in India have to mitigate user harm in the first place.

"Our approach towards AI regulation is very simple. We will regulate AI as we regulate Web 3 or any emerging technologies to ensure they do not harm digital citizens," Chandrasekhar said. Given India's strong IT industry and a large set of data, AI-based utilities can leverage huge potential in the country. Though AI is still in its early stages.

Many countries have been using AI technologies for better service delivery and to reduce human intervention but fears of job cuts remain as the technology evolves. On Thursday, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, whose company deals with artificial intelligence technologies and has created ChatGPT, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in the national capital and discussed various aspects of AI including the need for global regulation.

Besides India, Altman is on a six-nation tour this week, including Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and South Korea. In a tweet, after meeting Altman, PM Modi wrote that the potential of AI in India's tech ecosystem is vast -- among the youth in particular.

"We welcome all collaborations that can accelerate our digital transformation for empowering our citizens," PM Modi wrote. Talking about his plan for India, Altman said that the first thing he will do in India is to fund startups.

"We were always amazed and quite grateful for the quality of Indian startups," he said, adding that he had met some startups in India.