Why we need an AI minister & ministry

India has its fair share of ministries, and conflating some of them has been considered a smart idea for a while now. But moving in the opposite direction in just this case, perhaps it's time to give serious consideration to creating an AI ministry with a suitable minister for the job. Its mission for AI should be capacity-building, promoting ethical development, turbo-boosting R&D and democratising access. GoI is reportedly open to bringing in a law on AI to secure its vision for the tech. It should go a step further and create a ministry that will deliver more in terms of policy management, admin and coordination among stakeholders. AI is dual-use tech, and GoI needs an internal node to bifurcate its strategic and commercial development. It will have to step into managing risks around AI. A structure such as a ministry with a budget decided by voters would be more accountable than an institution.

India would have to go beyond most countries that rely on regulating AI through existing administrative mechanisms. A few like the UAE, France and Britain have a standalone AI ministry or authority, even as the common approach has been to create dedicated units within existing ministries. This reflects a spectrum of opinion over how the tech should evolve. At one end, it involves a dialogue between tech developers and lawmakers over safeguards. At the other, governments have set out guard rails within which the industry must operate. In either case, regulation has moved from internal controls to external agencies that are acquiring the capacity for oversight.

AI development can be shaped through scrutiny of application as well as its source. This strengthens the case for a ministry that can coordinate regulation to the use case, like health or finance. Also, it would need to exert some influence on computing power as a means of control over the technology. Within government, a dedicated AI ministry will necessarily have inputs on how public services are delivered. Thus, instead of a law, Indian lawmakers should be debating an AI ministry.