AI indispensable but potential for bias significant, cautions CAG
Feb 22, 2023
By Suchitra Mukherjee
New Delhi [India], February 22 : Extolling the virtues and the indispensability of artificial intelligence (AI)-based applications, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on Wednesday said that the "most significant risk associated with AI implementation in the public sector is the potential for bias."
Addressing a seminar themed "AI and Data Analytics" on Wednesday, the national auditor Girish Chandra Murmu said in his address: "AI technologies while being exciting also bring a certain degree of risk with them. The most significant risk associated with AI implementation in the public sector is the potential for bias."
He said, AI algorithms learn and improve themselves through identifying pattern in training data and the entire algorithm would be vulnerable to similar bias. "Another risk of AI implementation in the public sector is privacy concerns for the individuals."
While the indispensability for AI to detect malicious cyber activities, identifying potential threats and in responding to them in the forseeable future is bound to increase, AI is also being used by cyber criminals to create more advanced attacks against security infrastructure and solutions, he said.
"That is why AI is always to be hyphenated with 'responsible' i.e., it should work for overall betterment of society, environment and not just for humankind but for the entire planet," Murmu added.
Explaining that India is the home to third largest and fastest growing AI ecosystem in the world, Alkesh Kumar Sharma, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said in his speech, "In this era of digital transformation, role of AI technologies becomes crucial in bringing accountability and transparency in delivery of public services."
Sharma added how the government is moving towards evidence-based policy formulation and facilitating the acceleration that is being brought for the development of innovative start-up ecosystem in India.
Another speaker, Rohini Shrivastha, CTO, Microsoft India, explained the principles for responsible and ethical use of AI and also emphasised on the need for risk-based regulation of AI technologies.
