HYDERABAD: For India's smart city initiative to succeed there is a need to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are adaptive in nature. This was the theme set at the “Artificial intelligence and society” symposium held at International Institute of Technology (IIIT) on Saturday.
“The first computer came to India in 1964. We have moved a long way from there. In 1968 we went for government permission to use computers in Mumbai electrical grid, it took us one year to negotiate and implement. We were among the first countries to do it,” said FC Kohli, founder of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The discussion dwelled upon the need to use best technology to develop and sustain today's cities. The AI system used should be adaptive and be able to bring accountability at all levels of city governance, said experts related to the field.
“Today over 50 pc of the world population lives in cities. If society has to sustain, cities have to be smart. It’s ultimately the people who determine to what extent technology is best utilised,” said Mark S Fox, professor at University of Toronto.
“The need of the hour is to have AI systems in cities that generate and collect data at the most basic levels using sensors and other forms of data collection,” Fox said.
Speaking on Internet of Things (IoT) Fox said “it was not something new”. The first IoT device was a coca cola vending machine in 1975 that could tell the temperature of the cola and its availability, he added.
Power, agriculture and transport are the areas where AI can be best utilised, said K Ananth Krishnan CTO at TCS.