Webinar Explores the Intersection of AI and Ethics in India 

AI experts discusses impacts of technology on India’s future 

By Arjun Sherugar and Emily Dougherty 

AI’s impact on our world continues to present opportunities and challenges, inviting conversation around its uses and ethical implications. In September, The India Center at UCF hosted a webinar entitled, “Navigating the Crossroads: Ethics and AI” featuring Jibu Elias, Ph.D., who is the creator of INDIAai and the India Fellow for the Responsible Computing Challenge  at Mozilla.  

The India Center is a UCF unit whose mission is to promote contemporary India through partnerships, scholarships, research, education, and outreach to the Indian community in Florida and nationally.   

The webinar was moderated by Karthik Nachiappan, Ph.D., a research fellow for the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. He began the event by discussing the potential economic impact of AI.  

“AI is rapidly transforming economies and industries worldwide. India is no exception. The AI market in India is projected to reach about 8 billion dollars by 2025,” Nachiappan says. “India’s AI plans and initiatives focus on the ethical considerations as AI adoption increases in India.”

Elias discussed his research on India’s development of AI, and how his initial interested sparked for this project. 

“I was a journalist in Delhi, focusing on AI and emerging technology. I was the only person out there who was in that field specializing at that point,” Elias says. “We started to look into the challenges in the ecosystem and decided we want to move forward as an ecosystem building activity rather than an information portal.”

He explained that while the government assisted with the development, there were gaps and opportunities for improvement, such as greater organization to drive the project forward. To overcome this, Elias says he created an AI-based organization which received funding from mentors and industry leaders. This opportunity led to the creation of the INDIAai initiative. 

Additionally, he shared the possible challenges with AI in India. 

“In terms of the population, the Indian language is unevenly represented on the internet. Hindis are under one percent of activity on the internet,” Elias says. “What happens when you build tools like Chat GPT, which is only accessible in English? How do you ensure that accessibility?”

Yogesh Joshi, Indian Community Endowed Assistant Professor and Director of The India Center, shared that is important to have seminars with industry experts to create the opportunity to discuss the future of technology and its effects on India.  

“The impact of AI on Indian society, politics, and economy is already quite visible. Ethical dilemmas posed by AI will be a serious policy issue in the future,” Joshi says, “I am very grateful to have experts speak with The India Center on navigating the dilemmas posed by the AI revolution and how India aims to intervene in these debates on the global stage.”

To watch a full recording of the webinar, visit The India Center’s YouTube page.