Raise 2020: Artificial intelligence helping countries fight the pandemic

New Delhi: The final day of RAISE 2020–responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’ summit witnessed a discussion on themes like leveraging AI for pandemic preparedness, role of AI in fostering collaboration and innovation, and measures to create intelligent data repositories that can catalyze innovation using AI.

The first session of the day dealt with the topic of leveraging AI for pandemic preparedness. Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairman & ED, Narayana Hospitals said AI-based software tools could help elevate the efforts of healthcare professionals and allow them to deal with the pandemic better. “For healthcare to be affordable and safer, pen and paper need to be replaced by mobile devices in the hands of doctors, nurses and medical technicians. Hospitals must begin collaborating with startups in the telemetric and robotics fields to be ready to face future pandemics.”

In the same session, Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, CIO, Apollo Hospitals said the hospitals need to show urgency in adopting AI-based software tools. “Hospitals must act fast in adopting AI, catch the right data at the right time, build capacities with the right resources and build, deploy sustainable AI-driven tech solutions across practices,” he said.

Dr. Harpreet Singh, Scientist and Head – Division of Biomedical Informatics, ICMR said the country’s apex medical body is using AI-based tools to quickly scale up COVID-19 testing in India. AI is also being used to predict mortality rate with high accuracy.

The day witnessed two sessions showcasing initiatives by the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to promote the use of AI in governance. R.B. Udhayakumar, IT Minister, Government Tamil Nadu and Sathyanarayana B.V., Deputy Head, Karnataka Startup Cell delivered keynote addresses at these sessions.

Henri Verdier, the French Ambassador for Digital Affairs and Dr. Natalia Jimenez Lozano, Atos Director of HPC, AI and Quantum Life Sciences Center of Excellence, Cambridge, UK delivered keynote addresses at a session on AI governance and Institutional Mechanism for Collaboration and innovation. They talked about the need to build robust institutional mechanisms to encourage continued collaboration on AI between countries.

 “The current crisis has highlighted how important AI is in helping countries fight the pandemic. Governments, civil societies and corporations must increase collaboration in AI to maximize benefits to the society. This is of paramount importance. Transparency, accountability and protection of privacy are key to building reliable AI frameworks,” he said.

This session was followed by country-level presentations on developments in AI by experts from India, Japan, Singapore and Slovenia.

Elaine Tan, Advisor, Office of the Chief Economist and DG, ADB, Dr. Gaurav Aggarwal from Google Research, Prakash Kumar, CEO, GSTN, and Professor Ivan Oseledets from the Center for Computational and Data-intensive Science and Engineering, Skoltech then participated in a discussion on ways in which countries can harness data to create intelligent data repositories that can cradle innovation in AI.

One of the highlights of the day was a session on building consent mechanisms around consumer data in emerging economies, which was headlined by Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder, Infosys, and Chairman, Axilor Ventures. Gopalakrishnan underscored the criticality of putting in place strong consent frameworks around consumers’ data so innovation in AI can truly bloom.

“There are marked differences between data consent mechanisms in emerged economies and in ones emerging. India is on par with developed economies when it comes to data consent mechanisms. India now has the opportunity to become one of the first countries to put in place a simple, comprehensive framework for its data economy,” he said.

The day had two fireside chats. The first fireside chat, between Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and Nigel Wilson, Founding Partner at Awaken AI, was hosted by Shri Abhishek Singh, President and CEO, NeGD and CEO, MyGov. It centered on the importance of creating a culture that encourages innovation in AI and empowers innovators.

The second fireside chat was between Vivek Wadhwa, Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Engineering and Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, who deliberated upon the impact of AI on the Future of Entrepreneurship.

A session on charting a roadmap for AI in India was hosted by Sakal Bhatt, Consulting Editor, DD News. The session was attended by Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & IT, and Professor Mausam, Department od Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi.

The day’s evening sessions featured power-packed speakers like Dr. Shashank Ojha, Digital Development Global Practice at The World Bank, Tim Bradley, GM, Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, Australia, Eric Badique, Advisor for AI, European Commission and Dr. Amina Sambo Magaji, National Coordinator, NITDA, Nigeria.

RAISE 2020 was being organized between October 5 and 9. More than 79,000 stakeholders from academia, the research industry and government representatives from 147 countries have participated in the summit.