Hyderabad: India had missed almost all industrial revolutions in the past, joining at the fag end. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution, the one that is powered by artificial intelligence. In an attempt not to miss the current industrial revolution, the Telangana government has decided to compete with global nations to embrace, shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
To make a giant strides in the area, the AI City would start functioning immediately without waiting till the infra is developed at the Fourth City, said IT and industries minister D. Sridhar Babu, in an interview.
Excerpts:
Q. When will the AI City be ready?
The state government is ready to operate the AI City’s office from a two lakh square feet area at the World Trade Centre at Shamshabad. Once the infra is ready at Fourth City, the AI City would be shifted out of the WTC.
Q. How will the state governments make use of AI in administration?
The government is planning to launch a pilot project on AI to ensure that its welfare schemes’ benefits reach the targeted beneficiaries. Under the pilot project, the data of all the welfare schemes would be uploaded with AI assistance to see how they are reaching the targeted sections.
Q. Lack of skilled manpower and lack of training are the two major challenges that India faces. Engineering colleges have introduced AI as a subject, but fail in imparting the right training. How will the government address this problem?
The Finland government has introduced AI as a subject in their curriculum. The Telangana government is planning to introduce the AI curriculum in the high school and junior college level as a foundation course.
The government is also aiming to provide AI education to people of all age groups at higher levels through skill universities. Microsoft is providing software literacy to around 50,000 people in the state. HYSEA is providing computer literacy to another 5,000 members and wishes to provide training in AI too.
Q. There is talk that many software professionals would lose their jobs once AI penetrates deeper. Lakhs of IT professionals are working in the state. How can this be addressed?
One has to accept the change. There is no other way. About 24 global companies have reached an MoU with the state government to impart training and share their next level of technology, which hardly uses coding, in the state. It uses altogether different kinds of algorithms and AI skills. Besides helping the job professionals to retain their jobs, the new jobs would be created with this initiative.
Q. Who is the competitor for Telangana in AI? Is it Karnataka or Maharashtra?
We are not competing with any state. Our competitors are developed nations. Many people have raised doubts whether AI is required at this point of time. But, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy firmly feels that those who make a beginning, will always have an advantage. The people’s government is firm to go ahead, working practically to make Hyderabad as the capital for artificial intelligence in the world.
Over 2,000 delegates have taken part in the deliberations on the Global AI Summit in the city. MIT, Georgia Tech and New York University have assured us that they will take part in the AI City.
Robin (Robin van Puyenbroeck) from the World Trade Centre, USA, had offered to set up a World Trade Centre in the city. Yotta and Nvida, the world famous chip-making companies, have come forward to set up a GPU (graphic processing unit), which is the next level of CPU (central processing unit). The CPU usually handles all the tasks required for software on the server to run correctly. A GPU, on the other hand, supports the CPU to perform concurrent calculations. A GPU can complete simple and repetitive tasks much faster because it can break the task down into smaller components and finish them in parallel. The next level of GPU making unit would be functional in Hyderabad very soon.
Q. How many companies have come forward after the Rs 40,000 crore investment promised at the Davos summit and `40,000 crore assured during the recent US tour of the Chief Minister and others?
In the last 10 years, around Rs 1 lakh crore was promised to be pumped into the state. Hardly 30 per cent of it materialised. We don’t want to blame anyone, but we are engaged in talks with companies which entered into MoU during the earlier government. We are going ahead with a positive approach and rectifying the problems in attracting the investments.
We are not here to make big claims. But I would like to inform you that the Software Technology Park at Hitec City was started by the then Congress Chief Minister Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy about 30 years ago. Another Congress Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy, had started Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Outer Ring Road, Metro Rail and PV Narasimha Rao Expressway in 2004, which have changed the infrastructural face of Hyderabad. With these infra, the Hyderabad city is getting global investments in an auto-mode.
