Reliance Industries Limited chair Mukesh Ambani on Monday said that he was confident that the government will introduce a “sound” data regulation framework to protect the “national resource” that is data, and to ensure privacy. He also called data the “raw material” for artificial intelligence, and that India has a unique advantage over other countries as the country’s economy and society will generate data at an “explosive and exponential rate”. Ambani was speaking at the Indian government’s Raise 2020 Summit (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment, 2020). Ambani said that artificial intelligence will make India’s industries and small businesses atmanirbhar (self-reliant), modernise the country’s agriculture, and deliver education, skills, and training to Indians. Ambani also likened the advent of modern day artificial intelligence to the birth of human intelligence in the world, and claimed that the total non-biological intelligence will exceed the rational intelligence of the entire human population in the coming decades. However, it will never be able to “replace the human mind”, but will help in solving complex problems of the day, he added. In another recent telecom-related address, Ambani said that India should become 2G-mukt, or 2G-free. Jio, which Reliance owns, does not support 2G handsets. BharatNet and 5G He also talked about the Indian government’s BharatNet initiative, and claimed that the project will put India among the top nations in fixed broadband connectivity. He however, did not mention how the project has been beleaguered by delays since its inception about a decade ago. The BharatNet project, in…
