AICTE asks institutions, stakeholders to disseminate report on upskilling in AI, data science

NEW DELHI: The All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) has directed the colleges and technical institutions to widely disseminate the report ‘National Program on Artificial Intelligence’.

The report has been prepared by a committee constituted by the union ministry of electronics and information technology (MieTY). The committee has detailed several programmes on artificial intelligence (AI) and data sciences and other measures to promote upskilling in these sectors. The report was issued in June 2023 as a part of the MieTY’s ‘National Program on Artificial Intelligence’ (NPAI).

The committee has recommended that the skilling of youths in AI and data science should start from the early school levels. The report has suggested a basic curriculum for different levels aligned with the National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF) and the National Credit Framework (NCrF).

The union government aims at establishing a comprehensive programme for leveraging transformative technologies to foster inclusion, innovation and adoption for social impact under the NPAI. As per the NPAI, the ministry is focusing on four broad pillars of the AI ecosystem – skilling in AI, responsible AI, data management office and Setting up the national centre on Al.

The AICTE said the institutions and other stakeholders can download the report at this link. The report, along with the skilling programmes on AI and data science, has also stressed on the need to dedicate at least 10% of each course to ethics in AI. “Every course, small or big, must have a module on ethical AI for a minimum of 10% of its duration. Ethical considerations, transparency, fairness, and privacy must be integrated into AI training programs to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed responsibly,” the report mentioned.