Google announced a $1 million grant for the institute’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre.
What’s it about? IIT Madras joins the likes of Stanford and MIT in having its own research centre to study the fair and ethical development and use of AI. Google will provide $1 million for the centre. It’s part of the company’s commitment to developing responsible AI technology.
- The centre will bring together experts, researchers, policymakers, and developers to “get AI right” and localise it for the Indian market.
- IIT Madras has also garnered interest from other big industry players wanting to be involved in such an initiative. Even the government think tank NITI Aayog is interested.
Necessity: Since AI has gone mainstream, a multi-disciplinary stakeholder approach is needed. AI is being used across the public and private sectors for efficiency. However, there is a debate on the ethics of its use, especially by law enforcement. In the West, the use of AI has shown prejudice towards certain races and ethnicities.