Expert Speak Young Voices
Published on Jul 10, 2019
Tighter collaboration between private, government, nonprofits and educational institutes will be the key to India’s development of new-age technology.
AI policy analysis: AIDP of China vs. India’s NITI Aayog AI policy paper

China through its rapid advancements has established itself among the world leaders in AI-based technologies. India has also started moving slowly in the same direction by increasing government’s funding and AI professionals. With China’s plan to “catch up” to the US by 2020, through its widely discussed ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative, India also felt the pressure to continue rapid advances in AI. The Indian government’s think-tank, ‘NITI Aayog’, released a paper last year outlining the government’s official strategy for the advancement of AI, with a significant boost in the funding for AI (infusion of ₹3,073 crores) by the government. The paper clarified 5 major sectors that AI research in India will focus on – healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation. This looks similar to the steps taken by the Chinese counterparts when they published there AI development plan in 2017. The Chinese plan also involved funding and creating a domestic AI industry, which aims to be worth RMB 1 trillion by 2030. Over 48% of total equity funding in AI startups came from China in 2017, world’s biggest AI startups with values of over USD 2 billion such as SenseTime, Cambricon, Megvii, CloudWalk, and YITU are Chinese, showing how China is already leading the so called ‘4th Industrial Revolution’.

The Indian government’s think-tank, ‘NITI Aayog’, released a paper last year outlining the government’s official strategy for the advancement of AI, with a significant boost in the funding for AI (infusion of ₹3,073 crores) by the government. The paper clarified 5 major sectors that AI research in India will focus on – healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation.

This situation between the two biggest nations of Asia prompt us to speculate that, will China with its authoritarian government-backed push to AI dominate or will India, with its large population of AI professionals, and a democratic system provide the required manpower for large innovations. We can analyse the two country’s plans to develop there AI industries through their official policy papers. 

AIDP, 2017

China announced its ambition to lead the world in AI theories, technologies, and applications in July 2017, a next generation ‘Artificial Intelligence Development Plan’. It is very comprehensive and includes initiatives and goals for R&D, industrialisation, talent development, education and skills acquisition, standard setting and regulations, ethical norms, as well as security. The opening paragraph reflects the Chinese views and intentions regarding AI: “AI has become the new focus of international competition, a strategic technology that will lead in the future; major developed countries are taking the development of AI as a major strategy to enhance national competitiveness and protect national security.” This also reflects how China’s AI policy community is paying close attention to the AI industries of other countries. AIDP lays a three-step plan, making China’s AI industry “in-line” with competitors by 2020; reaching “world-leading” in some AI fields by 2025; and becoming the “primary” center for AI innovation by 2030. By 2030, China aims to cultivate an AI industry that will be worth 1 trillion RMB, and with its related industries to be worth over 10 trillion RMB. Government intends to recruit the world’s best AI talent, strengthen the training of the domestic AI labour force, and lead the world in laws, regulations, and ethical norms. Showcasing China’s intention to actively lead the global governance of AI.

AIDP lays a three-step plan, making China’s AI industry “in-line” with competitors by 2020; reaching “world-leading” in some AI fields by 2025; and becoming the “primary” center for AI innovation by 2030. By 2030, China aims to cultivate an AI industry that will be worth 1 trillion RMB, and with its related industries to be worth over 10 trillion RMB.

China published a Three-Year Action Plan after AIDP, promoting development of New-Generation AI Industry. This plan was built on the first step indicated in the AIDP, specifically advancing four major tasks. First, focusing on developing intelligent and networked products like vehicles, service robots, and identification systems. Secondly, emphasising on developing the AI’s support system, including intelligent sensors and neural network chips. Thirdly, encouraging development of intelligent manufacturing. And, improving the environment for development of AI by investing in industry training resources, standard testing, and cyber security. The government has also partnered with national tech companies to develop research and industrial leadership in specific fields of AI and is building a USD 2.1 billion technology park for AI research in Beijing. China is already leading the world in both total AI research and highly cited AI papers worldwide, in AI patents and venture capital investment. These strategically cultivated steps with humongous investments and a perfect timing have created a solid base for China to lead the world in Artificial Intelligence.

NITI Aayog’s policy, 2018

India developed a very unique approach for its national AI strategy by leveraging it not only for economic and military growth, but also for social inclusion, calling it, #AIforAll. This strategy, aims to enhance and empower young Indians with the skills to find quality jobs, investing in research and sectors that has potential to maximise economic growth and social impact, and to scale Indian-made AI solutions that can be implemented to the developing world. Paper identifies, Healthcare – increasing access and affordability of quality healthcare, Agriculture – enhancing farmer’s income, farm productivity and reduction of wastage, Education – improving access and quality of education, Smart cities and infrastructure – efficient connectivity for the burgeoning urban population, and Smart mobility and Transportation - for smarter and safer modes of transportation and better traffic and congestion problems; as the priority sectors for benefiting most of the population socially from applying AI.

India developed a very unique approach for its national AI strategy by leveraging it not only for economic and military growth, but also for social inclusion, calling it, #AIforAll. This strategy, aims to enhance and empower young Indians with the skills to find quality jobs, investing in research and sectors that has potential to maximise economic growth and social impact, and to scale Indian-made AI solutions that can be implemented to the developing world.

NITI Aayog provided over 30 policy recommendations to invest in scientific research, by encouraging reskilling and training, accelerating the adoption of AI across the value chain, and promoting ethics, privacy, and security in AI. Its main initiative is two-tiered integrated strategy to boost research in AI. First, new ‘Centers of Research Excellence’ in AI or COREs to focus on fundamental researches. Second, the COREs will act as technology feeders for the ‘International Centers for Transformational Artificial Intelligence’ or ICTAIs, that will focus on creating AI-based applications specifically in domains that has societal importance. It also suggests setting up of a ‘consortium of Ethics Councils’ at CORE and ICTAI, which will develop sector specific guidelines on privacy, security and ethics that will create a ‘National AI Marketplace’ to increase market discovery and reduce time and cost in the collection of data. There are initiatives that will help the overall workforce to acquire skills. Strategically, the government of India wants to establish the country as an “AI Garage” which means that if a company can deploy an AI technology in India, it will then be applicable for the whole developing world. The government aims to provide a perfect “playground” for enterprises and institutions globally to develop scalable solutions which can easily be implemented in the developing and emerging economies i.e. solve for India means solve for more than 40% of the world.

Implications

By analysing the two countries’ plans, a stark difference in their approaches and ambitions is visible. Chinese government’s AI reports frequently cite US national security think tank publications, its leadership sees increased military usage of AI as inevitable. China already exports armed autonomous platforms and surveillance systems based on AI. Civil-military fusion is China’s key national strategy, so private Chinese companies are bound to help PLA. India, on the other hand, seems to be nowhere close to China in these specific fields due to lack of totalitarian control that China has over its population and companies. Tighter collaboration between private, government, nonprofits and educational institutes will be the key to India’s development of new-age technology. While China directly plans on competing with the West, India’s AI adoption completely focuses on social development and inclusive growth. The difference in the governance structure between the two gives India more attractiveness and soft power outlook that encourages other AI powers to collaborate more with India vis-à-vis China. This will consequently give India access to more diverse Metadata, which is essential for developing AI technologies and solutions for the world. China has the largest number of Global in-house Centers (GIC), but they only focus on local markets, whereas India focuses on global initiatives, making it a better place for international cooperation on data analysis. A more internationalised and free-thinking capability of the population also gives India an edge over China. Unique initiatives like establishing India as ‘AI Garage’ for the developing world, adds to its attractiveness for global cooperation. But in India companies face many unique problems, like legal and privacy-related challenges, slim investments for startups, etc. which are largely absent in China.

China as of now is way ahead of India and is already a leading hub of AI development. The Chinese system allows AI advancements to happen in a controlled environment, under a check from the state administration. The amount of data that China has access to is incomparable to anyone else in the world. While India too has a large amount of data, it lacks its own tech giants like Google for the US and Baidu for China, which can use the available data to create a credible AI base for India. Moreover, the Indian education system also needs large-scale reforms that should focus more on practical skills than solely on academic degrees. There is a need for synergy between educational institutes and tech companies and an increase in the number of vocational and AI-based courses. A serious up-gradation in skill development can lead to a transformation in India’s research community, that is reflected in China by the volume of research coming out. It is high time that India adds fuel to its existing initiatives to be a force to reckon with, in the international community in this space.

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