In a bid to ensure the ethical and responsible development of AI-based solutions, IIT Madras recently set up a Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI). The institute defines this as first of its kind multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary research centre. 

Earlier today, the Centre for Responsible AI even conducted its first workshop on ‘Responsible AI for India.’ The centre was formally inaugurated by Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. 

This new development also comes against the backdrop of Google last year announcing a grant of $1 Mn to IIT Madras for setting up a Centre for Responsible AI, which will look into mitigating bias using NLP models and enable fair use of AI. 

Read: Google Announces 1 Mn Grant to IIT Madras for Responsible AI Initiative 

CeRAI 

IIT Madras believes that one of the primary objectives of CeRAI is to produce high-quality research outputs. This includes publishing research papers in high-impact journals/conferences, white papers, and patents among others. Further, it said that it will work towards creating technical resources like curated datasets (universal as well as India-specific), software, toolkits, etc., particularly in the area of responsible AI. 

Prof. V. Kamakoti, director at IIT Madras believes that 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. He said that 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,” said Kamakoti, saying that AI will not take away jobs as long as domain interpretation exists.

IIT Madras’ AI Contributon 

IIT Madras has been one of the top institutions in spearheading some of the cutting-edge AI innovations in the country, besides IISc, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad and others. Some of the notable work at IIT Madras include PIVOT, an AI-based tool that can predict cancer-causing genes in an individual. Read: Interview with the IIT-Madras team that developed the cancer prediction tool, PIVOT

Last year, researchers from IIT-Madras developed a new display technology called ‘iTad’ (interactive Touch Active Display) which can mimic textures such as gritty surfaces and crisp edges. These are some of the notable contributions, besides launching multiple AI initiatives, like ‘Nilekani Centre at AI4Bharat’ and others. Read: IIT Madras and Nandan Nilekani Launches An AI Centre on Indian Languages