Across the board, the impact of COVID-19 was shutdown and lockdown of the economies in India and South Asia, the United States, and around the world
The central danger is, therefore, not simply that AI will be monstrous if the accelerator is pressed hard on the speed of technology. It is that the accelerator on human institutions also needs to be pressed harder to govern increasingly powerful technology.
The fear of Chinese robots being the Trojan horse that can affect American and Western tech dominance and undermine cyber and military advantage will always be a strategic concern, despite attempts to view these fears as overblown.
For a Viksit Bharat, data, computation and intelligence will become strategic resources. Protecting them is not protectionism; it is prudent nation-building. India should remain globally connected, internationally collaborative and technologically ambitious but sovereign enough to protect its citizens, institutions and national interests.
The real significance of AI, therefore, may not be about who is the first to cross some hypothetical finish line called AGI. It may be about who is able to diffuse AI most rapidly through the real economy, into factories, services, logistics, research and everyday business
Across the board, the impact of COVID-19 was shutdown and lockdown of the economies in India and South Asia, the United States, and around the world