As Indian companies and the state push for a full-fledged approach towards the adoption of AI in different industries, Competition Commission of India (CCI) Chairperson Ravneet Kaur highlighted the pros and cons of adopting the new technology and staying ahead of the times.
Speaking at the IndiaAI summit held in New Delhi from 16th to 20th February, she stressed upon "transparency, accountability and competition safeguards to prevent unfair conduct in digital markets". She harped on the fact that "access to data, skill sets and infrastructure is a crucial factor for the future".
She mentions that AI definitely makes things faster and easier and can revolutionize healthcare, logistics, and farming, but it can also create an environment for dominance by the big players. They could use unfair pricing or exclusive deals to discriminate against people based on their location or income.
She mentioned that she wants innovation, but that should act as a shield and not weapon to block competitors or force unfair deals on people. Innovation is needed to bring in new players, newer technologies and impart better value for customer. Things should progress in a way that there are no entry barriers and competition is not squeezed out.
Our view:
The recent AI summit hosted in India makes a massive statement to the global world by India that it is looking at the future and is fully prepared to take on and adapt to the innovation, for a better Economic growth. However, along with the positives that come with adopting this technology, there are certain critical issues too, that India needs to look at.
As mentioned in the article, there will always be some Companies which will be far ahead than the others in the field of using AI technology. That will be a critical entry barrier for the new players as the big ones will tend to stifle competition through their better knowledge. As a result of which, it will just not be the smaller players and the new entrants who will suffer, the ultimate consumers too will be at the receiving end.
For India, from Regulators point of view, it is indeed encouraging to know Regulators like NFRA (as covered in detail in previous News Summary) and now CCI are showing encouraging signals for implementing AI with safeguards.
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Link - https://www.business-standard.com/industry/news/need-transparent-accountable-ai-systems-says-cci-chief-ravneet-kaur-126022001245_1.html
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