Data Science

India: The Largest Potential Field for Applied Artificial Intelligence

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Historically, India has been the land of wisdom and innovations. There were fully functional universities in India at a time when most of the European nations were still fighting over cattle. However, the following course of events had popularized India as the land of sages and snake charmers. Our colonial rulers loved that sort of a portrayal. Now, as we have stepped into the third decade of this millennium, India holds the promise and potential of becoming the new battle ground for the AI giants.

What is applied artificial intelligence?

AI or artificial intelligence had taken a long time to complete the journey from the pages of science fiction to a real scientific laboratory. Applied AI is simply the vehicle that helps AI get out of the lab and into the heart of business processes and other fields.

What can be achieved with the help of applied AI?

So far the contribution of AI has been pretty straight forward. It automates tasks and decision making which would have required human intervention.

  • It applies human like judgement to enable and enhance end to end automation.
  • Uses extra-human computational power with a human touch while getting rid of human biases as far as possible.
  • Augments various processes enhancing efficiency.
  • Frees up human workers.
  • Increases revenue by solving business problems and devising better marketing strategies.

Is India currently using Applied AI?

Yes, she definitely is. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog has launched a programme for AI integration and enhancement in India. A country of India’s size and population can definitely achieve a lot with the help of AI and the following are some areas where applied AI has already started making a visible difference.

Applied AI in agriculture

It is common knowledge that a large part of the Indian economy is dependent on agriculture. Strange as it may sound, the development of agriculture is largely dependent on technological advancements. At this point, in India, a pilot mission to evaluate the influence of applied AI on farm yields has been launched in 15 districts of India.

The farmers are provided with an AI based real-time advisory system which uses satellite imagery to inform the farmers about the weather and also imparts knowledge on the effectiveness of different crops at different times on different land types.

Using machine learning for genetic engineering has opened up new possibilities in terms of creating better crops which are more immune to diseases and pests. Using AI to further enhance farming can be a pivotal move towards another green revolution in India.

AI revolutionizing health care in India

India is a large country the greater part of whose population lives in villages and has limited access to health care facilities. The patients outnumber the health care professionals by far.  AI could make a huge difference in this space by augmenting the efforts by the health care professionals. Some specific efforts have been made in the contexts of detecting diabetic retinopathy and cardiac risk early with the help of AI based systems. There is a severe lack of radiologists and pathologists in India. Both these areas can be heavily augmented by the image recognition and image processing technologies. The image recognition technologies have also been used by the traffic police in different Indian cities who oversee traffic obedience with the help of AI.

Creating an NLP platform for 22 Indian languages

NLP stands for natural language processing – the ability of a machine to interpret human language. Usually a computer understands binary language comprised of ones and zeroes in certain patterns. Every piece of input is coded so as to be translated into binary. Natural language processing removes the coder from between the computer and the human speaker or writer. The system is able to learn the human language by being exposed to it and then understand it.

As a part of the NITI ayog an NLP platform is being created that will integrate all official Indian languages. This could be a great way to impart technological knowledge and counselling to different parts of the country.

AI gaining ground in different sectors

As far as AI patenting and AI integration are concerned India is still quite a distance behind China and USA but there is a steady growth of interest around artificial intelligence. The Indian government is the greatest proponent as well as customer of AI based solutions. Hence it is a good time to make a career shift in that direction. You can start with a data science course in Gurgaon and work your way up.

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