Comments on AI taking away jobs nonsense, bakwas: Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Chennai (PTI): Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar termed as "nonsense, bakwas" comments about artificial intelligence taking away jobs in India.
The minister of state for electronics, information and technology said Artificial Intelligence (AI) today is task-focused and essentially makes tasks more efficient, mimicking human behaviour.
"I am sorry to be sounding cynical. In 1999, the whole of 1999, I heard how Y2K is going to wipe out the world. Then I hear AI will finish our jobs and there are obviously people who want to look at the worst case scenario of any innovation. AI will finish our jobs, zero, nonsense, bakwas," he said.
"Generative AI today is task-focused and essentially makes tasks more efficient, mimicking human behaviour..."
Chandrasekhar was talking to reporters after unveiling the fully automated state-of-the-art electromagnetic interference and compatibility laboratories at the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) here on Friday.
He said the government was working with a data sets programme where government anonymised data would be made available to Indian artificial intelligence researchers and start-ups.
"These are data sets that would be offered on a curated basis and the design for those five works were set up by the Ministry," the minister said.
Two consultations were held and very soon the government would be announcing the entire architecture of the data sets programme.
On the semiconductor industry in India, he said the government was engaged in building a semiconductor ecosystem which is expected to come up in three to five years.
Elaborating, Chandrasekhar said 18 months ago there was none and today we have got almost 30 start-ups engaged in semiconductor design.
"You see in IIT Madras, which was supposed to be a PhD project, is receiving private capital funding asking it to grow...that is the difference in 18 months. It is not government money. It is private investors backing a company to do the next generation of computers from semiconductors design from Chennai," Chandrasekhar said.
He said India would soon have a semi-conductor research centre and the country would be a player in the global semiconductor value chain.
"We are going to end up doing in 10 years what China took 30 years to do and failed. China has spent USD 2 billion in the last 15 years in trying to create a semi-conductor industry, and what do they have today? In Hindi there is a phrase, zero battey sannata," the minister said.
"This (semiconductor design) is really transformative and what is this really why we are confident is because electronics as an industry did not exist pre-2014 and had been laid to waste because of imports. Today, we (India) are a trusted and significant player in electronics...," he said.
"In three-five years, we will have a fully competitive world-class semiconductor ecosystem in India," he added.
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Girl child raped, murdered by uncle in Andhra Pradesh
Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): A four-year-old girl was allegedly raped and murdered by her distant relative at a village in Tirupati district, said a police official on Saturday.
According to Tirupati district superintendent of police L Subbarayudu, Nagaraju (24), who is the victim's maternal uncle, lured the girl to a secluded place in AM Puram village by offering her snacks on Friday evening and committed the crime.
"Nagaraju lives near the girl's house and used to play with her everyday. Yesterday (Friday) evening he took her to a shop and bought some snacks. Later, he took her away from her house and sexually assaulted and killed her," he said.
Later, the parents of the girl noticed that she was missing and launched a search for her, and realised that she was last seen with Nagaraju.
They lodged a police complaint over the missing girl.
Following the complaint, the police immediately registered a missing case and took Nagaraju into custody.
During interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime, they said.
Later, police took Nagaraju along to search for the girl's body and found it near a government school around 9 pm.
Nagaraju was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and other relevant sections.
The accused will be produced in a local court on Saturday.
Tirupati SP said they will seek a fast-track court for a speedy trial of the case.
