The recent US order on AI regulation is an attempt to create a balance between innovation and citizen interests, and India can learn from it, experts say. The order has reignited the debate on regulating emerging technologies around the world, including in India.

“The US system likes to balance both the innovation aspects, and at the same time protect consumer welfare, which is basically ensuring there’s safety, there is no privacy concern, and there is no bias. So, I guess one of the major key takeaways from there could be how to actually go about doing a balanced approach,” said Kamesh Shekar, senior programme manager at The Dialogue.

The executive order signed by US President Joe Biden directs federal agencies to set new safety standards for artificial intelligence systems and requires developers to share their safety test results along with other critical information with the US government.

The regulation also requires AI developers to share safety test results with the US government. Further, the National Institute of Artificial Intelligence is tasked with creating safeguards around the secure use of artificial intelligence.

India has been witnessing rapid growth in AI adoption across sectors, and there has been continuous work on AI regulations. “There were a series of papers, which actually put forth some principles for the possible use of emerging technologies, including a National Strategy on AI by Niti Aayog,” says Shekar.

In the past, Niti Aayog’s National Strategy for AI talked about creating sectoral regulatory frameworks to tackle specific AI issues, to the likes of countries like Germany and Japan. The document states, “Apart from having a central privacy protection law, due to the diverse and fast-changing nature of the technology, sectoral regulatory frameworks may also act as additional protection to user privacy and security.”

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology revealed the first edition of the India AI report, which made some recommendations around the regulation of emerging technologies.

Talking about the report, Amol Kulkarni, director (Research) at CUTS International, says, “A lot of these recommendations from the India AI report are quite technical in nature and they also lay a forward-looking path in terms of how we could develop AI and make India an economy which can benefit from the potential of AI.”

“I think, when it comes to regulating or developing codes or frameworks around such an evolving sector, there is a need for more consultation, a more evidence-based approach and a more bottom-up approach,” he added.

Experts believe that India, being a developing nation, is uniquely positioned to regulate AI. The government should go for a more holistic approach rather than following the risk-based approach in EU or US regulation blindly, they say.

“I think India is in a very unique kind of situation and therefore, every decision with respect to AI governance, the purpose for which AI needs to be used, what should be the use cases, etc., need to be very carefully thought through and in consultation with the citizens and consumers. Citizens would need to be empowered and to better understand how their data is being utilised and they need to be empowered to have their grievances redressed,” said Kulkarni.

The recent US order on AI regulation is an attempt to create a balance between innovation and citizen interests, and India can learn from it, experts say. The order has reignited the debate on regulating emerging technologies around the world, including in India.

“The US system likes to balance both the innovation aspects, and at the same time protect consumer welfare, which is basically ensuring there’s safety, there is no privacy concern, and there is no bias. So, I guess one of the major key takeaways from there could be how to actually go about doing a balanced approach,” said Kamesh Shekar, senior programme manager at The Dialogue.

The executive order signed by US President Joe Biden directs federal agencies to set new safety standards for artificial intelligence systems and requires developers to share their safety test results along with other critical information with the US government.

The regulation also requires AI developers to share safety test results with the US government. Further, the National Institute of Artificial Intelligence is tasked with creating safeguards around the secure use of artificial intelligence.

India has been witnessing rapid growth in AI adoption across sectors, and there has been continuous work on AI regulations. “There were a series of papers, which actually put forth some principles for the possible use of emerging technologies, including a National Strategy on AI by Niti Aayog,” says Shekar.

In the past, Niti Aayog’s National Strategy for AI talked about creating sectoral regulatory frameworks to tackle specific AI issues, to the likes of countries like Germany and Japan. The document states, “Apart from having a central privacy protection law, due to the diverse and fast-changing nature of the technology, sectoral regulatory frameworks may also act as additional protection to user privacy and security.”

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology revealed the first edition of the India AI report, which made some recommendations around the regulation of emerging technologies.

Talking about the report, Amol Kulkarni, director (Research) at CUTS International, says, “A lot of these recommendations from the India AI report are quite technical in nature and they also lay a forward-looking path in terms of how we could develop AI and make India an economy which can benefit from the potential of AI.”

“I think, when it comes to regulating or developing codes or frameworks around such an evolving sector, there is a need for more consultation, a more evidence-based approach and a more bottom-up approach,” he added.

Experts believe that India, being a developing nation, is uniquely positioned to regulate AI. The government should go for a more holistic approach rather than following the risk-based approach in EU or US regulation blindly, they say.

“I think India is in a very unique kind of situation and therefore, every decision with respect to AI governance, the purpose for which AI needs to be used, what should be the use cases, etc., need to be very carefully thought through and in consultation with the citizens and consumers. Citizens would need to be empowered and to better understand how their data is being utilised and they need to be empowered to have their grievances redressed,” said Kulkarni.

The executive order, signed by US President Joe Biden, directs federal agencies to set new safety standards for AI systems. It requires developers to share their safety test results along with other critical information with the US government. 

The regulation also requires AI developers to share safety test results with the US government. Further, the National Institute of Artificial Intelligence is tasked with creating safeguards around secure use of AI. 

India has been witnessing rapid growth in AI adoption across sectors, and there has been continuous work on AI regulations.

“There were a series of papers, which actually put forth some principles for the possible use of emerging technologies, including a National Strategy on AI by NITI Aayog,” said Shekhar.  

In the past, NITI Aayog’s National Strategy for AI talked about creating sectoral regulatory frameworks to tackle specific AI issues, similar to countries like Germany and Japan.

The document states, “Apart from having a central privacy protection law, due to the diverse and fast changing nature of technology, sectoral regulatory frameworks may also act as additional protection to user privacy and security.”

Earlier this month, the ministry of electronics and information technology revealed the first edition of the India AI report, which made some recommendations around regulation of emerging technologies. 

Speaking about the report, Amol Kulkarni, director (research), CUTS International, said, “A lot of these recommendations from the India AI report are quite technical in nature. They also lay a forward-looking path in terms of how we could develop AI and make India an economy which can benefit from the potential of AI.” 

“When it comes to regulating or developing codes or frameworks around such an evolving sector, there is a need for more consultation, more evidence-based approach and more bottom-up approach.” he added

Experts believe that India, being a developing nation, is uniquely positioned to regulate AI.

They said the government should go for a more holistic approach rather than blindly follow the risk-based approach in EU or the US regulation. 

“I think India is in a very unique situation, and therefore, every decision with respect to AI governance, the purpose of AI and the use cases need to be very carefully thought through. It should be done in consultation with the citizens and consumers. Citizens would need to better understand how their data is being utilised. They need to be empowered to have their grievances redressed.” said Kulkarni.

After a major controversy erupted between the ruling party and the opposition leaders over the alleged hacking of their phones, Apple officially announced that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.

“State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time. Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,” Apple said in a statement.

The tech giant further said that they are unable to provide information about what causes them to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X on the clarification from Apple and said “Apple’s clarification is a long-winded non-denial… it only confirms what Rahul Gandhi said in his press conference today.”

Multiple political leaders have alleged that their Apple devices have been the victim of alleged hacking. The leaders shared the screenshot of the warning received on their Apple devices.

The leaders alleged that the Government was behind this attempt to breach their devices.

Leaders like–TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi, and AAP MP Raghav Chaddha were among others who claimed that their phones were hacked.

The opposition party’s allegations bring the BJP on the front foot where multiple leaders slammed the opposition leaders.

BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya told ANI “Apple has clarified that they have sent several such notifications across the world. Approximately users in 150 counties have received such notifications and they are also not able to point out why such notifications have been triggered. So, for the opposition to allege that this is being done at the behest of the government is absolutely baseless. Rahul Gandhi apparently under the influence of foreign-funded agencies keeps raking these issues but has never cooperated with the investigation. The Opposition does not have any issue to take on the Government and therefore they are resorting to making these false allegations.”

Earlier Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that many people in his party had got similar notifications and claimed that he was not scared of phone-tapping.

“Very few people are fighting against this but we are not scared. You can do as much (phone) tapping as you want, I don’t care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you” Rahul Gandhi said.

After a major controversy erupted between the ruling party and the opposition leaders over the alleged hacking of their phones, Apple officially announced that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.

“State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time. Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,” Apple said in a statement.

The tech giant further said that they are unable to provide information about what causes them to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X on the clarification from Apple and said “Apple’s clarification is a long-winded non-denial… it only confirms what Rahul Gandhi said in his press conference today.”

Multiple political leaders have alleged that their Apple devices have been the victim of alleged hacking. The leaders shared the screenshot of the warning received on their Apple devices.

The leaders alleged that the Government was behind this attempt to breach their devices.

Leaders like–TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi, and AAP MP Raghav Chaddha were among others who claimed that their phones were hacked.

The opposition party’s allegations bring the BJP on the front foot where multiple leaders slammed the opposition leaders.

BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya told ANI “Apple has clarified that they have sent several such notifications across the world. Approximately users in 150 counties have received such notifications and they are also not able to point out why such notifications have been triggered. So, for the opposition to allege that this is being done at the behest of the government is absolutely baseless. Rahul Gandhi apparently under the influence of foreign-funded agencies keeps raking these issues but has never cooperated with the investigation. The Opposition does not have any issue to take on the Government and therefore they are resorting to making these false allegations.”

Earlier Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that many people in his party had got similar notifications and claimed that he was not scared of phone-tapping.

“Very few people are fighting against this but we are not scared. You can do as much (phone) tapping as you want, I don’t care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you” Rahul Gandhi said.