We should not let AI spread misinformation: MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar at AI Safety Summit in UK

During the inaugural 'AI Safety Summit' in the UK, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, highlighted the potential risks of allowing innovation to outpace regulation, drawing parallels with the challenges faced in combating misinformation and the weaponisation of the internet, particularly through social media. He underlined the need for a new framework that places greater responsibility on internet platforms to address user harm.

Addressing an audience of global leaders, Chandrasekhar stressed the importance of ensuring the safety and trustworthiness of platforms, whether in the realm of artificial intelligence or the broader internet. He cautioned against repeating the mistakes made over the last decade in allowing unchecked innovation to lead to toxic online environments.

“We have learned in the last 10-15 years as governments that by allowing innovation to get ahead of regulation, we opened ourselves to the toxicity and the misinformation and the weaponisation that we see on the Internet today, represented by social media,” said the minister. This is not what “we should chart for the coming years in terms of AI”.

“We certainly want AI and the broader internet and tech to represent goodness, safety and trust and underlying all of that, underpinning all of that, platforms and innovators that demonstrate accountability and the law to all those who use it,” Chandrasekhar told the gathering.

The Union Minister highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advocacy for a collaborative approach to shaping the future of technology. Whether it involves innovations, partnerships, or the institutional framework for regulating technology and innovations for the greater benefit of humanity, Modi has consistently urged the formation of international coalitions of nations. This approach, he emphasised, ensures greater sustainability, as an institutional framework supported by multiple countries is inherently more robust and enduring than one driven by a single nation or a handful of nations.

The 'AI Safety Summit 2023,' a global event held at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, and attended by over 100 world leaders, tech executives, academics, and researchers, discussing the importance of addressing the safety and ethics of AI technology.

Also Read Apple iPhones to be made in India for domestic and global markets by Tata: Rajeev Chandrasekhar