IIT Madras establishes center for responsible AI; Google contributes USD 1 million

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has established a centre for responsible artificial intelligence (CeRAI) today, May 15, 2023. IITM's AI center aims toward ethical and responsible development of AI-based solutions in the real world.

Google became the first platinum consortium member by contributing USD 1 million towards the center. IIT Madras will be focusing on fundamental and applied research in Responsible AI with immediate impact in deploying AI systems in the Indian ecosystem.

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The center held its first workshop today on 'responsible AI for India'. The workshop included a panel discussion aiming to foster various partnerships and collaborations with government organizations, academic institutions and industries.

To ensure ethical & responsible development of AI-based solutions, @iitmadras has established a Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary research centre. @Google is the first platinum consortium member.@rbc_dsai_iitm@GoI_MeitY@Rajeev_GoI pic.twitter.com/VAqipk68cV

— IIT Madras (@iitmadras) May 15, 2023

The IITM's center will be formulating sector-specific recommendations and guidelines for policymakers and provide all stakeholders with the necessary toolkits for ensuring ethical and responsible. It will also be holding series of technical events such as workshops and conferences on various themes with a focus on ethics and responsibility.

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Speaking about the work that would be taken up in this centre, IIT Madras Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), head Balaraman Ravindran, said: “It is important for the AI model and its predictions to be explainable and interpretable when they are to be deployed in various critical sectors/domains such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Banking/Finance, among other areas. We need research into developing assurance and risk models for AI systems in different sectors.

Highlighting the need for such centers, IIT Madras director V Kamakoti, said: “We have now reached a stage where we have to assign responsibility to AI tools and interpret the reasons for the output the AI gives. Aspects of human augmentation, biased data sets, risk of leakage of collected data and the introduction of new policies besides substantial research must be addressed. There is a growing need for trust to be built around AI and it is crucial to bring about the notion of privacy. AI will not take away jobs as long as domain interpretation exists.”