India Reverses Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stance, Requires Government Approval For Model Launches

India has paddled into the global AI debate by issuing an advisory and asking the firms to comply with immediate effects. On Friday, India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT issued an advisor for the tech firms. However, the advisory is not released to the public but it has been reviewed by some trusted sources.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, IT Deputy Minister said the notice is “signaling that this is the future of regulation.” He adds: “We are doing it as an advisory today asking you to comply with it.”

Under the IT Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, the government is asking for compliance with the “immediate effects”. The government has also asked the tech companies to submit an “action-cum-status report” to the ministry within 15 days. The advisory is aimed at “untested AI platforms deploying on the Indian internet” and it does not apply to startups.

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The advisory also adds that Non-compliance with the provisions of the IT Act and IT Rules would result in “potential penal consequences to the intermediaries or platforms or its users when identified,”.

However, many industry experts are saying this advisory can lead us by leaving us behind in the generative AI, where we are already lacking. “I was foolish to think that I would work on bringing GenAI to Indian agriculture from SF,” said Prateek Desai, founder of startup Kisan AI. “We were training a multimodal low-cost pest and disease model and were very excited about it. This is terrifying and disappointing after working full-time for 4 years to bring AI to this sector in India.

Many other leaders are also criticizing the change in the policy. Some are saying it is “a bad move” while Martin Casado, a partner at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, Said, “Good fucking Lord. What a joke.”

Sources are saying this advisory is a follow-up of the defective response of Gemini when a question is asked about PM Narendra Modi. On that response by Gemini, Chandrashekhar has also responded that-” These actions directly infringe upon Rule 3(1)(b) of Intermediary Rules (IT rules) of the IT act and contravene several provisions of the Criminal code.”