Date : 28/09/2023

Relevance – GS Paper 3 – Science and Technology

Keywords – Regulatory framework, Marketing chatbots, GPAI, UNICEF

Context

With the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our daily routines, there is a growing conversation surrounding the need for regulation in this dynamic and potentially complex field. An area where India can take a pioneering role is in shaping the regulatory framework concerning children and adolescents, a demographic that holds immense significance yet remains relatively less comprehended within this context.

Understanding AI

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, represents an emerging technology that enables machines to replicate human intelligence, allowing them to perceive, comprehend, and respond to various tasks. One illustration of AI in action is Siri, a virtual assistant that emulates human reasoning within computer systems.

AI finds diverse applications across various domains, including natural language processing, speech recognition, machine vision, and expert systems. Real-world examples encompass manufacturing robots, autonomous vehicles, marketing chatbots, and much more.

AI's Strategic Significance in India: A Global Perspective

AI Summits and Economic Impact:

India is gearing up to host two landmark global events centered on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In October, the country will welcome the world to its first-ever global AI summit. Adding to this, as the Chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), India is set to host the GPAI global summit in December. These high-profile gatherings underscore the strategic significance of AI, as it is poised to contribute a substantial $500 billion to India's economy by 2025, constituting 10% of the nation's targeted GDP.

Pioneering Ethical Regulation:

India's Prime Minister has recently called for the establishment of a global framework governing the ethical expansion of AI. With the vast amount of data that India generates, the country has a unique opportunity to set a regulatory precedent for the Global South. The international community will closely observe India's approach to AI regulation, particularly how it balances the developmental potential of AI against the associated risks.

A Focus on Youth:

One area where India can take a leadership role is in shaping how regulators address children and adolescents, a demographic that is critically important yet not fully understood in the context of AI. The digital nature of services often means that many cutting-edge AI applications are not explicitly designed for children, but they are accessed by them nonetheless.

Navigating Governance Challenges in Regulating AI for Children

Alignment with Child-Centric Concerns:

Regulating AI for children necessitates a deep alignment with issues that directly impact them, such as addiction, mental health, and overall safety. Without such alignment, AI-driven digital services hungry for data can deploy hidden algorithms and manipulative tactics, posing risks to young users. These threats encompass misinformation, radicalization, cyberbullying, sexual grooming, and doxxing.

Empowering Youth to Address Unintended Consequences:

The next generation of digital citizens will need to grapple with the indirect consequences of their family's online activities. Parents often share their children's photos and videos online to document their parenthood journey. As children transition into adolescence, regulations must equip them with the tools to manage unintended consequences. For example, AI-powered deepfake technology could be misused to create and distribute inappropriate content online, targeting young individuals.

Addressing Biases and Inequalities:

India is a diverse nation with various intersectional identities based on gender, caste, tribal identity, religion, and linguistic heritage. Internationally, AI has been known to perpetuate real-world biases and inequalities in the digital realm. These biases can particularly impact children and adolescents from marginalized communities.

Misalignment with Digital Realities:

India's newly established data protection framework is not entirely in sync with the country's digital realities, especially concerning children. It places a significant burden on parents to safeguard their children's interests but may not adequately support safe platform operations or design. Additionally, it defaults to banning the tracking of children's data, potentially limiting the benefits of online personalization that many of us experience.

Guidelines for Effective AI Regulation for Children

Drawing Inspiration from International Best Practices:

To formulate successful AI regulations for children, India can take cues from international best practices. UNICEF's guidance for policymakers on AI and children, which is rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (of which India is a signatory), outlines nine requirements for child-centered AI. These guidelines aim to create an environment that promotes children's well-being, inclusion, fairness, non-discrimination, safety, transparency, explainability, and accountability.

Adaptability to Varied Developmental Stages:

A crucial aspect of effective regulation is the ability to adapt to the diverse developmental stages of children across different age groups. California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act can serve as a model for this. It emphasizes transparency, ensuring that digital services configure default privacy settings, assess the potential harm of algorithms, data collection, or targeted advertising systems on children, and use clear, age-appropriate language in user-facing information.

Promoting Research on Age-Appropriate Design Code for AI:

Indian authorities should actively promote research that gathers evidence on both the benefits and risks of AI for India's children and adolescents. This research can serve as a foundation for the development of an Indian Age-Appropriate Design Code for AI.

Enhancing Mechanisms and Institutions:

Establishing better institutions can help shift regulation away from top-down safety protocols that place undue burdens on parents. Creating mechanisms for regular dialogue with children will enable the incorporation of their perspectives regarding the advantages and threats they encounter when interacting with AI-based digital services. An institution similar to Australia's Online Safety Youth Advisory Council, comprising individuals between the ages of 13-24 years, could offer an innovative approach. Such institutions will assist in making regulations more responsive to the challenges young people face when engaging with AI systems while preserving the benefits derived from digital services.

Conclusion

Given the rapidly advancing landscape of AI, effective regulation should steer clear of rigid prescriptions and instead emphasize the adoption of standards, robust institutions, and best practices that prioritize openness, trust, and accountability.

As India progresses toward crafting a new legislation to address internet-related harms and aims to establish itself as a leader in global AI regulation, it is imperative that the interests and well-being of the country's young citizens take center stage in these endeavors.

Source – The Hindu