Over 760 proposals, requests from various ministries on AI applications under evaluation: IT Secy

Nearly 762 suggestions and proposals have been received from various ministries on potential applications of artificial intelligence suited to their areas, post the India AI Summit and Meity is working with them to evaluate and take them forward, IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.

Based on their individual needs and requirements, the ministries have made submissions identifying areas where AI can be deployed, he said.

"Ministries have submitted certain requests and proposals in terms of the kind of applications they want, based on what their requirements are. The Prime Minister had asked all ministries to visit the India AI Summit and stalls at the exhibition, and come back with where they think AI can be applied in their respective ministries," Krishnan said on the sidelines of the CII GCC Business Summit.


Almost 762 suggestions have been received, Krishnan said, adding, "we are working with various ministries to identify how to take it forward".

On the roadmap for a separate AI regulation, the top official of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) said the government will begin discussions with various stakeholder groups to seek their views and start the drafting process.

"We will have to begin discussing in various groups as to what the stakeholders feel about it and we will start a process of drafting it," Krishnan said.

Last week, Krishnan had said the time has come to look at a separate AI regulation.

He had noted that while existing legal provisions have so far been adequate in addressing initial concerns on issues like deepfakes and AI-generated synthetic content, an "additional regulation or law may be needed".

"It is a conversation which has commenced, and my minister (IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw) and I have both been on record earlier that we will look at AI regulation when the time is right, and it appears that the time is getting right, and we will start looking at it," Krishnan had stated.

Policymakers, across the globe, are grappling with challenges posed by generative AI, including deepfakes, misinformation, and online harms.

India has been tightening IT rules to firmly crack down on AI deepfakes.

In February this year, the government brought in stricter obligations for online platforms on handling AI-generated and synthetic content, including deepfakes, saying platforms, such as X and Instagram, must take down within three hours any such content flagged by a competent authority or court.

The government notified amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, that formally define AI-generated and synthetic content.

The amendments defined "audio, visual or audio-visual information" and "synthetically-generated information", covering AI-created or altered content that appears real or authentic.

Routine editing, accessibility improvements, and good-faith educational or design work have been excluded from this definition.

The Centre has also mooted stricter disclosure norms for AI-generated content, proposing tweaks to IT rules that would require clear and continuous labels identifying synthetically generated information to be visible throughout the entire duration of the visual display.