PM Narendra Modi: Deepfakes in democratic country like India a big concern

 “Concept of Green GDP should be developed”

 New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said artificial intelligence (AI) presents a huge opportunity but there is a significant risk of misuse, especially deepfakes, if such a powerful technology is placed in unskilled hands.

Responding to a question from Microsoft Co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on how India looks at AI which is a huge opportunity but comes with its own challenges, PM Modi said proper training is must to handle technologies like AI.

Prime Minister Modi also highlighted his use of AI during the G20 summit for speech translation and delivering addresses in various languages at different events. He suggested leveraging technologies like ChatGPT for continuous self-improvement.

Addressing the topic of climate change, Modi emphasised the necessity for global recalibration away from metrics such as electricity or steel usage to gauge development, deeming them environmentally detrimental. He advocated for embracing concepts like green GDP and green employment instead.

“I have engaged with leading minds on AI and its risks. I suggested that we should start with clear watermarks on AI-generated content to prevent misinformation. Proper sources of AI-generated content should also be mentioned,” PM Modi emphasised.

Deepfakes in a vast democratic country like India, which is going into general elections, is a real issue.

“Someone can even misuse my voice to deceive people and such a deepfake can trigger widespread uproar. We need to think about creating robust dos and don’ts on deepfakes,” the Prime Minister told Gates.

Using AI as a magic tool or asking ChatGPT to write letters is great injustices to this wonderful technology as we should rather compete with AI to improve ourselves and innovate further to solve real life problems, according to the Prime Minister.

“India has a myriad of languages and dialects and we need to push AI to recognize and adapt to those to help people,” PM Modi told Microsoft Co-founder.

“I constantly present new challenges to AI whenever I get a chance to speak to a machine or a robot, fostering its growth and adaptability,” the Prime Minister said.

PM Modi also told Bill Gates that India is making rapid advancements in the renewable energy sector, like solar, wind energy and green hydrogen, thus building ‘Green GDP’ which the world economies should embrace to tackle the burning issue of climate change together.

The Prime Minister said that the world should develop the concept of Green GDP to measure economic development.

“We must ask how much green GDP is out of the total GDP of a country. We need to think about changing the terminology around economic development,” the Prime Minister told Microsoft Co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

As India aims to become a $5 trillion economy, the concept of green GDP becomes a crucial factor, which takes into account the environmental costs of production.

PM Modi said that we should aim for nature-friendly innovation.

“India has created a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus fund to boost technological innovation in sunrise sectors, which provides 50-year interest free innovation to young entrepreneurs for research on future technologies, including how to save the climate.

During a free-wheeling chat with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that the NDA government, if voted to power yet again, will allocate money for research in cervical cancer.

The PM said that his new government will allocate funds to scientists for local research in cervical cancer as it wants to vaccinate all girls.

“In the coming days, I want to talk about cervical cancer, especially for our daughters. I want to give a budget to our scientists in India. And I want to tell them to do local research on this as well and make a vaccine. And with very little money, I want to vaccinate all the daughters in my country. I am working in that direction these days. When my new government is formed, it will allocate funds to scientists for local research in cervical cancer because we want to vaccinate all girls,” Modi told Gates.

Recently global health donors had pledged USD 600 million towards eliminating cervical cancer. The World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF said that the funding would go towards expanding access to vaccination, screening and treatment worldwide.

Studies say that cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, and continues to disproportionately impact women and their families in low- and middle-income countries.

India reported over 14.13 lakh new cancer cases and 9.16 lakh deaths in 2022, according to the latest estimates released by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

The top five cancers among Indian women were found to be those of the breast, cervix, ovary, mouth and colorectum. The top five cancers among men were those of the oral cavity, lung, oesophagus, colorectum and stomach. (ANI)

 Also Read: 'Misinformation spread via deepfakes biggest threat': Senior Research Engineer of Tenable, Satnam Narang (sentinelassam.com)

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