With the world seeing an AI boom and the negatives of the same surfacing online too, governments are becoming more vigilant about the rules that regulate this new technology. Previously, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had asked AI developers who were still under work to seek approval from the Government of India before releasing them for public use. In a welcome move for AI developers, the Indian government has updated its guidelines in a significant policy shift. The new policy now allows developers to release generative AI models without prior government approval.
This updated policy was announced on March 15. Instead of the previous requirements, the updated advisory has asked developers to undertake the process of self-regulation and to take proactive measures for the challenges that are arising.
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With this, the government is trying to balance promoting the development of technology and mitigating potential risks associated with AI.
Further, the government has urged AI developers to add labels to the output of their models, particularly those prone to misuse, such as deepfakes. They should properly label if any content that is produced by AI is unreliable.
Speaking of deepfakes, the government requires developers to label or embed such content with unique metadata. If they fail to comply with these regulations then it may result in prosecution under existing laws.
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This new policy has been welcomed by the developer community as it allows for greater freedom to innovate and promotes responsible AI development and deployment.
IDC associate VP of research Sharath Srinivasamurthy said, “I see this [advisory] as a step in the right direction as there was a backlash on the previous advisory. AI, especially genAI, is an emerging technology, and regulations will evolve as we go through this journey.”
