From Left: Pooja Rao (Google research scientist), Dr. Jeff Dean Chief Scientist, Google DeepMind and Google Research, and Dr Pramod Varma, CTO of EkStep Foundation and former Chief Architect Aadhaar & India Stack at Google's Leaders Connect event in Bengaluru, on February 2, 2024.
Photo Credit: Google India
Last weekend, Google hosted the Leaders Connect event with an insightful fireside chat with Dr. Jeff Dean Chief Scientist, Google DeepMind and Google Research, and Dr Pramod Varma, CTO of EkStep Foundation and former Chief Architect Aadhaar & India Stack in Bengaluru.
The conversation revolved around the fast-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and the latest phenomenon- Generative AI (Gen AI). While big tech majors want people to believe gen AI will greatly help in fast-tracking mundane time time-consuming tasks, there is also the risk of job loss. Most software companies have begun to automate work and are reducing the size of their teams.
However, the general consensus among the experts at the Leaders Connect event was gen AI can be best used to augment one's skill and there is optimistic about India role's in unlocking the true potential of gen AI.
Professionals should not fear gen AI, embrace it
Unlike in the West, where AI is seen as a substitute, India with 65 percent of the 1.4 crore population under the 35 age group, can use the latest AI technology to improve productivity. Also, gen AI will open more job opportunities too.
Dr Pramod thought that professionals should not shy away from learning about the latest advancements of gen AI and upskill to work smarter and efficiently.
This will also help people stay ahead of compatriots and secure their jobs.
"Some job shifts will going to happen, and automation will disrupt several areas including white collar jobs, accounting, and media too. However, the environment(tech) here in India is good; surely more opportunities will open up. For the majority, it'll (gen AI) be beneficial," noted Dr Pramod Varma.
Manish Gupta, Google Research head in India, added "Everywhere it has become a cliche, but really, people using AI will start to do much better than people who are not using AI. So, just use AI to augment to enhance your capability and I think that's you're going to see that universally. It's absolutely imperative in a country like India."
[From left] Manish Gupta (Director of Google Research India), Dr. Jeff Dean (Chief Scientist at Google DeepMind and Google Research) and Dr Pramod Varma, CTO of EkStep Foundation and former Chief Architect Aadhaar & India Stack at Google's Leaders Connect event in Bengaluru, on February 2, 2024.
Credit: DH Photo/KVN Rohit
"Majority of Indians and even developers should not at all shy away from actually embracing these (AI) tools and being ahead of these tools; so that we can figure out what it means to our own jobs and actually start shifting and getting better at it rather than resisting. Because resisting is a bigger impediment to cross (move ahead in career)," noted Dr Pramod Varma.
Pramod Varma also added that tech companies should leverage AI to address the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape of India, to address literacy gaps, while lowering costs in addition to increasing productivity, and efficiency.
Google, which recently launched the Gemini AI update, wants to democratise the gen AI tools to people. And, it is working to make gen AI tech available in multiple languages.
Already, Google Cloud is working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeitY) on the multi-language translation project Bhashini. It is planning to launch the Center of Excellence on Generative AI and Language Inclusivity.
The latter has set the target to train at least one million professionals and students with generative AI knowledge and new skills to their resumes.
"Young students in India are eager to understand the shift from more traditional computer science to learned-based approaches for solving all kinds of problems. You're going to see more students wanting to enter this kind of study and field of endeavor. Software developers are already paying attention to picking up these kinds of skills if they don't already have them. AI is going to make software development much more productive, and India is especially well positioned in this space," said Dr. Jeff Dean Chief Scientist, of Google DeepMind and Google Research.
For select media persons, the search engine giant showcased its tools Vertex AI and Duet AI for workspaces and enterprise clients.
From helping write a grammatically accurate email to smart composing email and adding codes to the website or a project instantly, Google AI tools are made to make the work simpler and more efficient to get the work done in the shortest possible time.
With Gen AI upgrade tools, users can create presentations using artificially generated art. They are even capable of churning out photorealistic images and unlike OpenAI tools, the content produced by Google tools is unlikely to get in legal issues.
Also, Vertex AI and Duet AI offer more control when retrieving information within the organization's workspace. They are capable of understanding information from multiple modalities such as text, audio, video, images, and programming codes.
With whatever information it has, the models can understand things be able to summarise, offer suggestions with logical reasoning, planning tasks, and do coding. Google believes these tools can increase the productivity of the workflow.
As noted earlier, employees should not fear gen AI tech, but embrace it to augment one's skills and become valuable assets to the company.
Digital Public Infrastructure + AI
After the introduction of Aadhaar in 2009, more than 90 per cent of the population have bank accounts.
And, with Unified Payment Interface (UPI() technology, more than 50 percent of the transactions are now cashless. In 2023, UPI-based transactions crossed 11,800 crores worth Rs 182 lakh crore in value, up 44 percent over the previous year in India. India accounts close to 50 per cent of global online transactions.
These Digitial Public Infrastructures (DPI) have greatly helped formalising the banking economy in India.
And, now with the gen AI, such DPIs can be made efficient and more affordable to the masses.
Dr Jeff Dean believes gen AI can transform both healthcare and education not just in India but also around the world.
"We all already started to see the glimpses of what is possible, but I think, much more will come in particular areas of education and health. AI can personalize education and provide greater access, to enable doctors to make more informed medical decisions," Dr Jeff Dean noted.
Does Gen AI tech need regulation?
Dr. Varma believes that govt should regulate the quality of services powered by AI, rather than attempting to regulate the technology itself.
Jeff Dean too reiterated that the government should focus on application-specific regulation and developing AI solutions that are free from biases, interpretable, and aligned with sound AI principles for the overall benefit of society.
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