Democratic nations will have legitimate concerns about AI's impact on politics: S Jaishankar at Bloomberg...

Democratic nations will have legitimate concerns about AI's impact on politics: S Jaishankar at Bloomberg New Economy Forum

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said democratic societies will have legitimate concerns around the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on politics and how it will impact the political exercise -- "something that is so crucial for credibility of democratic politics".

Elaborating on India's take on AI and the general thinking among the citizens, the minister said: "There is a consensus among the political class and the society about regulations and quardrails. There is also a feeling that there needs to be a more serious debate about responsibility and inclusiveness. Since it will affect everybody, it must be more accessible and much more available to be used according to their own comfort.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Jaishankar said that AI is the mother of all technology and will be far more pervasive and impactful on our everyday life. Contextualising the flow of technology in human history, Jaishankar said there are some that are much more narrower and more amenable and there are some that have had sweeping impact on human lives.

Answering a question on AI and if there is a requirement of global regulatory safeguards, the minister said: "It is hard to find a parallel paradigm to what we are confronting with Artificial Intelligence." Drawing a parallel with nuclear technology and elucidating how it is different from nuclear technology, Jaishankar said: "In the case of nuclear technology, yes it was regulated, but there were limited users of nuclear technology. There was either state users or big business users and the population at large was not a factor. We are dealing with a very different proposition when it comes to AI."

The External Affairs Minister added that other than the initial emphasis on leaders or early developers when it comes to an emerging technology, the eventual question will be on how the technology is applied and who will be the end users and what will be the consequences of using such a technology.

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