India reportedly plans to legislate on artificial intelligence regulation. As per Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, the process could start after the conclusion of the general election. India has recently been working on creating a regulatory framework to address a range of issues that have arisen with the growth of technology. This effort comes just a month after the Indian government issued an advisory, urging tech companies to obtain "explicit permission" before deploying under-tested or unreliable AI models in the country.
After concerns from startups, the advisory was later withdrawn and companies were asked to put visible labels containing “possible inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated”.
Recently, Ashwini Vaishnaw in an interview with Economic Times explained the government's plans to create a regulatory structure for AI. “One thought is to form a self-regulatory body. But we don't think that would be enough. We think that this regulation should be done by legislative method. We have already consulted the industry. After elections, we will launch a formal consultation process and move towards legislation,” the minister said.
The minister has announced the implementation of balanced regulations to ensure that innovation and creativity are not hindered. The regulations will address copyright, financial, and commercial concerns.
Preserving intellectual property is also a challenge that needs to be tackled. This issue has already been raised by famous authors, including Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, and James Patterson, who have written letters to tech giants asking them not to use their copyrighted work for training AI models or generating content in their style. The New York Times has also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for using its news articles without permission for training their chatbot.
In India, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) has requested copyright protection against AI models. The upcoming AI regulations are expected to address these challenges.
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