India plans to hold its first-ever AI global summit in October 2023. This will be followed by the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) global summit in December 2023, with India as the host. These events indicate the strategic value of AI for India. By 2025, AI is expected to contribute $500 billion to the Indian economy. This amount represents 10% of India’s targeted GDP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently encouraged the development of a worldwide structure for ethically expanding AI. Due to the vast amount of data India can produce, it could serve as a model for the Global South.
Need For Child-Centred AI Regulations
- India’s approach to AI regulation is closely observed, especially how it balances AI’s potential against associated risks.
- India could potentially lead in formulating AI regulations focused on children and adolescents.
- Due to the nature of digital services, children often access advanced AI deployments that aren’t specifically designed for them.
- There’s a need for regulations to align incentives and address issues like addiction and mental health.
- In the absence of these safeguards, AI-powered services could potentially employ obscure algorithms and manipulative techniques to take advantage of young individuals.
- These tactics can distort body image, leading to self-esteem problems.
- AI also poses other threats like spreading false information, promoting radical ideologies, enabling cyberbullying and sexual grooming, and facilitating doxxing.
- The new generation needs to understand the impact of their family’s digital activities.
- Parents often share pictures and stories of their children online, documenting their parenting journey.
- As they grow into teenagers, we should provide them with the means to manage unexpected online problems.
- There is a risk of misuse of AI technologies like deep fake.
- Ill-intentioned individuals may create and distribute fake, explicit content targeting young people.
Addressing Bias And Improving AI Regulation
- India is a diverse nation with intersecting identities such as gender, caste, tribal status, religion, and language.
- AI is known to carry over real-world prejudices into the digital realm, which can disproportionately affect children and teenagers from marginalised communities.
- Improvements in AI regulation should consider the shortcomings of India’s recently implemented data protection law.
- The present framework places excessive responsibility on parents to safeguard their children’s interests.
- It lacks adequate provisions for ensuring the safe operation and design of digital platforms.
Learning From International Best Practices In AI Regulation
- International best practices can guide India in regulating AI.
- UNICEF has created a guidance for AI and children policy.
- The guidance includes nine requirements for child-centered AI.
- These requirements are based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Children, which India has signed.
- The objective of the guidance is to foster an environment that enhances children’s well-being.
- Key principles of this environment include non-discrimination, safety, transparency, explainability, and accountability.
Towards An Indian Age-Appropriate Design Code For AI
- The adaptability of regulations to children’s varying developmental stages is crucial.
- California’s Age Appropriate Design Code Act can be seen as a benchmark.
- This Californian code advocates for transparency in digital services.
- The law requires default privacy settings to be pre-configured.
- It also calls for the assessment of potential harm to children from algorithms, data collection, or targeted advertising systems.
- The code insists on using simple, age-friendly language for information presented to users.
- It is imperative that Indian authorities actively endorse research on the benefits and drawbacks of AI specifically for children and adolescents in India.
- This research can be instrumental in establishing an Age Appropriate Design Code for AI specifically tailored to the needs and context of India.
Note: This editorial analysis is based on the article “Children, a key yet missed demographic in AI Regulation”, published in The Hindu, on September 26, 2023