- AI, together with hybrid cloud and in the not so distant future quantum computing, will have a profound impact on every sector of society.
- At the global level, AI will enthuse $15.7tr in productivity by 2030.
Bengaluru: IBM has announced that it is creating an AI Centre of excellence, in partnership with the Indian government’s e-marketplace (GeM), in an effort to increase usability, transparency, drive efficiency and cost savings in public procurement.
“We are only at about four per cent into the journey globally. At the global level, AI will enthuse $15.7.trillion in productivity by 2030,” Aravind Kirishna, CEO of IBM, said during the RAISE 2020 (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment), a virtual global artificial intelligence summit, on Monday evening.
Stating that India has the potential to lead the AI technology revolution, he called for greater emphasis and focus on three core elements – data, trust and skills.
“AI is one of the biggest technology revolutions of our time and I am convinced that India is uniquely positioned to lead the AI technology revolution. India has the world’s largest community of developers, a large startup ecosystem and a strong engineering and scientific culture” says Krishna.
“The premise is, to run AI we need good data. And like other sources of capital, the value comes from how you refine and apply it. There is a lot of data in India,” says Krishna, adding that it is also important to develop and instil trust.
Closing the skills shortage
“This is paramount, especially when you apply AI in highly regulated and safety-critical domains like healthcare. Installing trust in AI is avoiding bias, being explainable and being able to reproduce results.”
With regard to massive skill shortage in AI, he said IBM is working with various stakeholders to address the problem.
“I am really proud of the investments IBM is making in the future of Indian skills. Through the IBM Stem for Girls initiative, we are teaching 80,000 girls across India, how to code and build AI models and our goal is to reach 200,000 students by 2022,”
Earlier in July, IBM collaborated with India’s Central Board of Secondary Education ( CBSC) to integrate AI into the high school curriculum in 200 schools across India.
“All this will harness the immense energy of India’s youth and help the country apply the power of AI to solve deep societal problems. AI together with hybrid cloud and in the not so distant future quantum computing will have a profound impact on every sector of society,” adds Krishna.
IBM is working in coordination with both the central and state governments on various projects.
In India, IBM is collaborating with the State of Karnataka and Niti Aayog to deploy precision agriculture solutions, that combine AI and weather data to help farmers make better decisions.