Mumbai: The DM Harish Foundation, in collaboration with the Moot Court Association of Government Law College, Mumbai, organised a panel discussion on Saturday to debate the merits and ethics of AI usage and assuage the burning question— whether artificial intelligence (AI) is a creator or a destroyer?
The panel saw the likes of Milind Deora, a former Union minister, Prasad Karande, the director of Mumbai University’s Board of Examinations and Evaluation and Anantharaman Balakrishnan, the sales director of Google Cloud. Haresh Jagtiani, a senior advocate at the Bombay High Court presided over the session.
The panel titled “The Benefits and Risks of AI - Creator or Destroyer?” questioned the ethics and legalities of the functioning of AI taking into account the threats posed to privacy and misinformation propagated by the technology. Jagtiani started the panel by disavowing AI, calling it “absolutely ignorant” and posing questions about the recent controversy surrounding Google’s Gemini AI which has allegedly been spreading misinformation.
Talking about the controversy, Balakrishnan said, “When you open Gemini, the screen clearly says that the AI might display inaccurate and disrespectful information which any new AI or large language model may do. Any new technology takes time to perfect. We are working with the government to ensure that we follow the laws of the land.”
Deora spoke about the difficulty surrounding the legislation of AI, keeping in mind processing like data collection and computation. “Unfortunately, no governments will be ahead of innovation in this case. The government will have to find a way to allow this sector to flourish. I don’t think you can regulate content creation, what you can regulate is data through privacy laws that we have and content distribution,” Deora said.
Anand Goeka, the executive director of The Indian Express Group, remarked about content regulation saying, “We don’t want governments to deal with our free speech and content because most misinformation comes from the government. But if we don’t trust the government to regulate AI, then who will?” He pointed out problems like increasing polarisation in this generation and the lack of incentivisation for original content.
Karande, bringing forth the perspective of education, said, “MU has been teaching AI for the last year. AI is here and it isn't going anywhere. Now we have to learn how to use it and deal with its risks.” Karande also spoke about harnessing AI to automate data and to conduct admission which will relieve pressure off the university.
While discussing how AI might leave a huge chunk of the software industry redundant, Jagdish Moorjani, the co-founder of CitiusTech, said, “Around five million people work in the tech service space. This industry is India’s oil and will have a profound impact on this country.” He was optimistic about the new jobs that AI will create and added that India will have to upskill to meet this requirement.
Talking about the use of AI in teaching processes, Kishu Daswani, a professor at the Government Law College, emphasised that AI can be used to democratise information to students of all strata. “Professors can tweak syllabus and teaching methodology to cater to the needs of demographics and students,” Daswani added.
