“Can Transform…”: At Davos, Andhra Minister Nara Lokesh Talks To NDTV On Impact Of AI On Jobs

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, can “fundamentally transform governance”, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh told NDTV Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland’s Davos.

Mr Lokesh also played down fears the (inevitable) advance of AI, and machine learning, will rob millions of their jobs. Instead, the “order of jobs” will be changed, he said, adding, “… I believe that over the next decade jobs are going to be created in areas that we are yet to discover.”

“Jobs under threat are typically white-collar jobs (but) I think every industrial revolution has shown that it (eventually) creates more jobs… history shows us that. So, I don’t believe AI will reduce jobs.”

AI – and its possible impact on jobs – has been a hot button topic at Davos this year, particularly for a country like India, which is primarily agrarian and already faces worrying levels of unemployment.

On Tuesday Gita Gopinath, the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, told NDTV an estimated 26 per cent of the country’s total workforce may be “exposed” to AI platforms.

The message, however, wasn’t all doom and gloom. She indicated yesterday, as Mr Lokesh said today, that 14 per cent of those jobs will benefit and the rest would face a “displacement effect”.

READ | “26% Of India’s Jobs Exposed To AI, But…”: Gita Gopinath At Davos

And those comments seemed to agree with what Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa, said at the NDTV World Summit in October last year; he acknowledged the advance of AI as “inevitable”, but argued it would bring in “new kinds of jobs… new scales of jobs”.

READ | “AI Inevitable, Will Bring New Kinds Of Jobs”: Amitabh Kant To NDTV

With that idea – that AI can create various kinds of jobs – Mr Lokesh gave NDTV insights into how Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s government is harnessing the power of tech.

“I think AI can transform governance at a fundamental level. One example of what we’re doing is education and to help students go from being a passive to an active learner. We’re doing this project… a 45-minute class is followed by a two-minute video with five questions at the end.”

“And, based on the answers, we’re using AI to prescribe homework.”

Mr Lokesh also spoke about other examples, such as using AI – in collaboration with companies like Meta and Google – to identify beneficiaries for welfare schemes and to deliver those services.

“I think the government’s role is to create use-cases (for AI) that can then be scaled up,” he said, adding that the Andhra Pradesh government is particularly interested in exposing women, students, and farmers to AI to help them double their incomes, in certain cases, and transform their lives.

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