PM Modi warns against dangers of AI in chat with Bill Gates

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said Artificial Intelligence should not be seen as a magic tool as he warned against growing challenges such as deepfake. 

“If we use AI as a magic tool, it will be a great injustice. Or if we use AI because of our laziness—if I have to write a letter and I ask ChatGPT to do it instead of drafting it—it is a wrong approach. I should compete with ChatGPT,” Modi told Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates during an interaction. 

In a video shared by Narendra Modi’s official YouTube handle, Gates interviewed the prime minister over a host of issues including digital governance. 

“We have democratized technology. No one has a monopoly over it. It is for the people, by the people, and people will keep adding value to it so even a common man trusts the technology,” Modi said as he listed the list of changes the technology has brought in the key sectors of health, agriculture, and education. 

When asked about the importance of AI, Modi illustrated how his government used AI in the G20 summit for translating speeches and also his addresses in different languages in several events. 

Answering Gates’ query on challenges of AI, the prime minister said that a great technology can be misused if it is handed to people without proper training and suggested proper attribution for all AI-generated content to prevent misuse.  

“I have responded to brains working in the field of AI. I have suggested that initially all AI-generated content should have a watermark to indicate it is an AI-generated content. It is not a bad thing, it is simply AI-generated,” he said. 

“Deepfake, in a vast democratic country like India, if a person puts out something using AI-for example, if someone misuses my voice for something sinister-people would believe it, at least initially,” he added. 

Modi told Gates that he is fascinated by technology but is not a slave to it. “I am not an expert but have a childlike curiosity for technology,” he said.