To be true, we are living in an era of artificial intelligence. From smart homes and personal assistants to surgical robots and self-driving cars, everything proves us how powerful technology has become. All these inventions radiate advancement of machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, internet of things, and predictive analysis.
Globally, a new period has already started which is focused more on smart technology and use of artificial intelligence. However, in India, we are still far behind.
Although, recently, inclination towards National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems or CPS technologies started back in 2017, the budget allocated to this in Union Budget is rather modest.
Contrary to this, if we look at China, it is allocating vast amounts of money to AI development and research in-house. They are prioritizing cutting-edge technological innovation using machine learning, robotics, and swarm technology.
Needless to say, we all know that these technologies can change the world we see today.
Let’s see why we need to focus on AI more.
What Is the Scope of AI in India?
Assessing India’s capabilities in AI is an excellent way to start. There are various startups, big, and small organization working on artificial intelligence. Mapping the efforts of all these organizations can help in analyzing India’s capabilities in AI as well as merging the overall effect AI can have.
However, it is still believed by many that government support is significant when it is about artificial intelligence. If we analyze other countries performing good in AI such as the US and China, then it is realized that the back-support by the government is reportedly strong. In fact, China is even planning to spend USD 150 billion by the year 2030.
According to Economic Survey 2017-18, India should make the right investments in technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, the blockchain, etc. for growth in research and development sector.
The same survey additionally suggested that India has the potential to become a leader in AI inventions globally if the right investment follow.
Further, if we talk about losing jobs, then Nasscom and EY predicted that till the year 2022, we would see a change in jobs. A total of 46% workforce will be involved in a job we don’t see today. These jobs don’t exist right now but will come into an appearance at a later point.
The LinkedIn platform additionally gave us a revealing stat about how growth in AI skills on the platform grew to 190% between the year 2015 to 2017. They also explained that by AI, they mean all the related technologies such as neural networks, machine learning, and deep learning.
Even Indeed, a job-searching website, confirmed that there is a rise of 179% in job searching related to artificial intelligence.
While all these figures and stats indicate the rise of this technology, the budget being allocated to AI in India is considerably low. India plans to spend only less than a billion in the coming five years, which is a modest budget for this technology.
Conclusion
The technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are pervasive and have a global influence. While the rest of the world is moving towards advancement in AI-related applications, we are still struggling for right support. We should be moving in that direction as well. In order to compete with global leaders, government support, investment, and support for innovation is necessary.