How India's public policy can take maximum advantage of AI

Defined as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programmes" by the late John McCarthy--one of the founding fathers of the discipline--Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has subtly made inroads into the daily lives of Indian citizens in the form of app-based cab aggregators and digital assistants on smartphones. However, public policy in India has not been able to take much advantage of AI applications, suggests a report published jointly by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) and consulting firm PwC. The report titled Artificial Intelligence and Robotics–2017 believes that national initiatives like Make in India, Skill India and Digital India could immensely benefit from AI technologies. Alternatively, early public sector interest in AI could trigger a spurt of activity in the AI field in India. AI, for instance, can be applied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives such as the Digital India initiative, Skill India and Make in India; in large-scale public endeavours ranging from crop insurance schemes, tax fraud detection, and detecting subsidy leakage, and to helping hone the country's defence strategy.