WEF Davos 2023: Will build regulation based on experience, says Ashwini Vaishnaw on possible misuse of ChatGPT

Davos 2023: India should be open-minded about ChatGPT and will build regulations step-by-step to prevent its misuse, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

"We in the government should be reflective and open-minded," he said when asked about the possible misuse of ChatGPT, a chatbot - which has created a huge buzz for its ability to answer complex questions, write poetry and essay on almost any topic.

Now, the fear is that this technology may be misused by many. Responding to this fear, the minister said the government should be open-minded about the tool but build regulations based on its experience.      

"We have to make sure that the innovation economy that we have built sits comfortable, and keeps moving forward while all the societal harms that we see are properly regulated. We have to buildup regulations step-by-step based on experience," the minister said while speaking to Business Today Executive Director Rahul Kanwal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  

Microsoft President & Vice Chair Brad Smith, who was also on the panel, said every tech tool can be turned into a weapon but one can use the same technology to increase defensive protection. He said one concern about ChatGPT was raised by some teachers who feared students could use the technology to cheat on papers. But one student - a former intern at Microsoft - at Princeton University in the US used ChatGPT to create an application "to detect when papers are being written by ChatGPT".

"You use the technology to increase defensive protection," he said when asked about some of the dark sides of ChatGPT.  

Vaishnaw said each and every aspect of the Indian economy is digitalising at a very fast pace and it will be further enhanced by artificial intelligence. The minister said that the government integrated its 'Bhashini' language AI tool which translates from one Indian language to any other Indian language in real-time - spoken, text everything.

'Bhashini' is India's AI-led language translation platform. "We integrated that with ChatGPT. We are seeing very good results. Somebody in the hinterland in India can ask a question in Hindi to ChatGPT, it finds the answer and gives the answer back in spoken Hindi," Vaishnaw said. He also said that there will be many more applications in multiple sectors like cyber security and healthcare. "This is a time to be curious, a time to make sure we are open-minded on what AI can do for society," he said.    

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