Global AI Conclave: Microsoft, Google, govt focus on problem-solving with finite data, not AGI

They were making a case for tailoring AI development to India's unique cultural and societal context.

Tech giants Microsoft and Google, along with the government, are focusing their efforts on developing targeted, problem-specific solutions with artificial intelligence (AI) using finite data sets.

The shift was highlighted in a panel discussion between Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research India, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) representatives during the CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave 2024.

The participants were making a case for tailoring AI development to India's unique cultural and societal context. This problem-driven approach is also reflected in the government's AI data sets platform, which aims to curate and make available finite data sets to support startups and academia.

The panel agreed that India cannot have out-of-context cultural interfaces, as developers will have to build applications that “speak” to the people on the ground.

In government applications, interfaces will soon be replaced by smart, action-oriented multilingual bots and provide services to people, said Nand Kumarum, a senior government official involved in India's AI mission, at the conclave on November 22.

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The focus should be on solving a "finite set of problems" rather than pursuing a generalist AI agenda, according to Kumarum. “People will largely be putting documents in these systems and getting services,” Kumarum, who is the president and CEO of National e-Governance Division at MeitY, said told the conclave’s audience in Bengaluru.

Organisations should hope to deliver tangible benefits to the people, rather than chasing the elusive goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the panelists agreed.

"We have to think about what works in our community-based culture, where tasks are often delegated within social circles,” Kumarum said after being asked how AI will be used by the government after successfully rolling out customer-centric government services such as Umang and DigiLocker.

While Umang is a unified app offering access to various government services, DigiLocker is a platform for storing and accessing digital documents securely.

Artificial General Intelligence refers to advanced AI capable of understanding, learning and performing any intellectual task that a human can do, across fields and contexts.

Kalika Bali, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research India, stressed on the need to listen to the people and solve the problems that "pinch them" the most rather than imposing imagined solutions.

"Have to solve for a problem that is really there, that pinches the people, not some imagined problem of your own. As a technologist, I cannot go out there and say, I'm going to change your life with this amazing technology,” Bali said.

She recounted an experience of working with women farmers in Bihar where a developer's attempt to "gamify" an app for farming was met with resistance. "I cannot even replicate the expression on those women's faces… one of them said 'do you think we have time to play games'?"

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Manish Gupta, research director, Google DeepMind, spoke about the potential of "universal AI agents" that can understand context and support natural forms of communication. The real power of these agents lies in empowering individuals and communities to tackle specific problems, rather than aiming for AGI capabilities, he said.

"Take any large problem today - in clean energy, material design, drug discovery - AI can be used to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery," Manish said. "I hope researchers in India wake up to this potential and start pursuing it with ambition," Gupta said.

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