With the advancement of time, new technologies have emerged to assist mankind and Artificial intelligence or AI has been captured in the centre of it. Now all industries from big tech companies and automobile giants to local shopkeepers have been using AI in some form. The usage of AI is not only limited to the private sector but the government also uses the same in some way or another. The data suggests that worldwide business spending on AI is expected to reach 110 billion dollars annually by the end of the year 2024. With such tremendous growth, this field is equally prone to various unethical practices because this area is relatively novel and given the complexities associated with it. That’s why it is required that laws regulating AI should be formulated along with its advancement. European Union passed the AI Act in April 2021 which aims to regulate privacy and application risks associated with it which will bring uniformity, transparency and accountability to the whole AI sector. It is a great benchmark for the world including India where such a nationwide act is yet to be formulated.

LITERATURE REVIEW

There was an article which was published by the Centre for Internet and Society which provides a very good descriptive framework for the implementation of a Pan India AI law. It covers all the aspects starting from the key considerations required for the successful implementation of the law to the appropriate framework in which the law should be made. It talks about the recent development in the field of AI and its impact on the Economy and other sectors. It also talks about the role ethics and morals play in this field. The article then discusses the importance of government funding and a strong infrastructure and ecosystem which would help the country to reach its end goal. It also suggests some measures which should be adopted like promoting AI awareness and inculcating AI education in school curriculum, etc before bringing the law into the picture. It also provides an important insight into the role which the private player will play in all these along with the government sector. Finally, it talks about the intermixing of AI with other fields of law like competition law, Data and privacy protection laws, etc and its possible ill effects which could be mitigated by bringing AI laws.

The reason for choosing this article is that it provides a complete view of the subject which helped me to identify the developments and the problems in this field and gave an insight into what can be done to solve these problems.

Artificial Intelligence Act is a piece of legislation which is tabled by the European Union in the year 2021 to regulate AI in various fields. It talks about many things like the impact of AI in the economic sphere and the definition of AI but the main suggestion it puts forward is to divide the risk associated with AI into 4 broader categories 1) Unacceptable risk approach 2) High risk approach 3) Limited risk approach and 4) No risk approach. This approach can help the Indian legislators formulate Pan India AI laws.

There is a myth which is associated with the field of AI that it is unbiased and cannot make mistakes. There is an article which talks about the inherent biases of the AI behind its algorithms and working due to the wrong data fed to it in different circumstances. It also provides some examples to substantiate its point. Lastly, it talks about the need for AI laws in India and the various prospects which should be kept in mind while formulating the laws.

Various developments took place in the past few years in the direction of formulation of Pan India AI legislation. An article which discusses the MOUs signed by the different governments with various private entities and expert committees formed in this regard. It also talks about the report published by NITI Ayog in detail and tries to explore the flaws in it. Lastly, it provides us with some suggestions that the government can consider from the EU legislation while formulating Indian laws.

There is a subtle trend which can be observed in the AI growth In the Indian markets in different tech and non-tech domains. It then goes on to analyse the various pre-existing laws like the IT law and Telemedicine guidelines which talk about privacy and artificial intelligence in some or the other way to find out the possible gaps in it and the way to fill these gaps. It also talks about the EU framework for regulating AI which could be adopted by the Indian legislators while making a pan-India AI law.

An article published in The Hindu exclusively talks about the future of AI in the world and India and the possibility of tremendous economic growth associated with it. It then provides some of the positives of the codification of AI laws. Lastly, it tries to conclude how a smart piece of legislation is beneficial for consumers entrepreneurs and other business entities.

An article published in The Hindu Business Line primarily talks about the need for pan-India AI law and how it can help India to progress in the field of tech and machine learning. It then talks about the privacy concerns associated with AI and special attention to this while formulating laws.

An article published in the centre for public impact has highlighted the unhealthy practises which the parties indulged to gain votes and to win election with the help of AI tools. It also tries to demonstrate that how these practises are put to use by these parties and how they affect a healthy democracy.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

There is an urgent need for a uniform legal structure for artificial intelligence (AI) in India to be fulfilled now unfulfilled. In order to guarantee ethical norms, reduce biases, and manage the complex relationship between AI and current laws, clear laws and legislation are required to support the rapid expansion of AI technology across a variety of industries ranging from healthcare to finance. Prime reason for India’s inability to fully utilize this game-changing technology is hampered by the lack of a thoughtful AI strategy.

This study aims to solve the complex problems caused due to India’s lack of a comprehensive AI regulatory framework. It further looks into the problem that   how such a framework might be developed and put into use while taking into account the ethical issues that arise with AI systems, the need to reduce social biases, the need to integrate AI with existing legal systems, and the valuable suggestions provided by international AI guidelines like the European Union’s AI Act.

In order to promote artificial intelligence in various domains, this study also acknowledges the significance of AI education and awareness, both for the private and public players. It also aims to examine the need for AI legislation in India so that a there remains no discrepancy in various domains regarding the use of AI. By doing this, it aims to offer India a path for creating a strong and flexible regulatory framework for artificial intelligence (AI) that can meet the country’s various local and sector requirements while allowing India’s continued development in the AI sector at the same time.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• To Find out the ethical and moral aspects of AI which should be taken into consideration while formulating AI laws.
• To find out the possible impact of AI laws on other areas of law like competition law, consumer protection law, data protection law, etc by doing a comparative analysis with the European laws and policies.
• To find out the key takeaways and recommendations of the foreign laws and policies regulating AI which can be incorporated while formulating our AI laws.
• To find out the limitations of Formulating a nationwide AI law in a diverse country like India.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• Is AI transparent and unbiased with its approach and can it be trusted while taking key decisions in sectors of social sciences and humanities?
• How to mitigate the social biases of AI with the help of AI laws?
• How to tackle some of the key challenges which consumers face due to the emergence of AI? 
• Are the present laws which deals which deal with sectors of education, banking, finance, etc adequate to tackle the new problems which arise with the advancement of AI or amendments are required for the same?
• What is the basis of classifying the European AI Act into the Unacceptable Risk approach, High-Risk approach, Limited risk approach and Low-Risk approach and how it would help formulate Indian AI laws?
• How the governments use AI to gather masses for them in the pre-election campaigns?
• How the corporate houses can mitigate the risks caused due to the advent of AI?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For this research doctrinal method is used and all the facts, Data and information have been taken from various newspaper websites, research papers, blogs and other pieces of documents. Both quantitative and qualitative data are being used for this research.

AI FROM ETHICAL VIEWPOINT

AI is a very complex subject and lacks transparency and openness about how it operates in different scenarios. For example, when a shopping website asks for data to proceed with something and later uses that info to recommend something similar again and again but later when asked about the exact process which goes behind this and how the company is accessing the data then most of the times the operators do not present the real picture. Similarly, when the Gmail section sends some mail automatically to the spam section even without asking for prior permission then it works on some algorithm which is not known to us. All these things raise a very big question mark on the ethical validity of AI.

It is thought that AI is unbiased in its approach when it is given a problem to solve or to work on in certain circumstances but unfortunately, that’s not the case always. The thing is AI works on data and algorithms and any discrepancy in the data fed to the AI algorithm will show its effect on the result. For example, it is observed that the banks in the USA discriminate based on race and ethnicity because the data and info available to the systems of the banks sometimes is wrong. Recently Amazon had to stop hiring using its algorithm when it was found that it discriminates against women in the process. These problems can be mitigated when there is a law which strictly regulates the working algorithm of these tech and multinational giants increases the transparency of the system and allows the people to know where and how their data is being used. Also, the companies must be held accountable for all the glitches and unethical practices they use while extracting and presenting the information of individuals wrongfully.

AI AND GOVERNMENT

It is a matter of fact that AI can be used by any government in a variety of things ranging from policy making to public health care and education to defence and finance. A good AI policy can help any government to work more efficiently and to reach out to its people. But there is another side to the story. It is observed that various governments are using AI for their own propaganda and unethical practices. Bots and other anonymous accounts are used on social media to influence the election results. It firms run by the election parties use AI to spread their propaganda to influence individual voters by influencing their ideology. Often it was observed that these AI tools are used by the parties to rig election results by spreading fake and inflammatory messages across social media to gain popular support for themselves. All this is very bad for any healthy democracy to operate freely. The election commission and judiciary should look upon these matters on a priority basis so that these unhealthy practices can be stopped on an immediate basis.

IMPACT OF AI ON OTHER AREAS OF LAW

The next problem which arises while formulating a pan-India AI law is knowing the impact of AI on other areas of law and how the laws can be construed in such a way as to regulate this intermixing of AI with various other fields of law. For example, In the context of Competition law, big names in the tech and automobile sectors use AI mechanisms to capture the market and create monopolies which hampers the ethics of a perfectly competitive market. US courts have found that in cases of merger-acquisition, big companies that rely on dataset often found themselves in a dominant position in the market. That’s why in order to curb data exploitation practises it is essential to limit the power of these firms to extract and sustain databases which is unavailable to its competitors in the marketplace. Since data is so volatile and all across the marketplace, It is important to identify and adopt a coherent approach to regulate and limit such practises which are adverse for a healthy competitive market.

AI plays a crucial role in various other sectors which vary from banking and education to healthcare and tourism. It would be a near-impossible task to formulate a law which addresses all the specific problems of these industries in the short term. So, it would be best for the legislators to make key amendments to the existing provisions which regulate the conduct and working of these sectors and add exclusive clauses relating to AI in these laws. However, it should be taken care that the new amendments adhere to the sectorial policy requirements and do not make it more complex. Secondly to identify whether the amendment is feasible or not in the first place.

FOREIGN LEGISLATIONS ON AI

If we look at the AI act passed by the European Union then it can be seen that they have divided the risk associated with AI into 4 broader categories. This is a great way to classify while formulating AI laws because it will give us insights into those areas which require specialized attention and areas which require normal or minimal attention. Under Unacceptable risk, those things are included that have the potential to threaten the privacy and livelihood of the individuals like biometric identification and AI used by government authorities where specialized attention is required. Under the high-risk approach AI uses in key sectors like education, health, management, migration, employment and law enforcement are included which affect the daily lives of the people and are prone to unethical practices. Under low and limited risk those areas are included where either key or small changes are required in the existing regulations like the chatbots and audio or video content subject to manipulation. This approach is a benchmark for the world and India which could be considered while making our very own AI laws.

SUGGESTIONS

All this being said there are some preconditions which are required to be kept in mind before the formation of AI laws otherwise the laws would mean nothing for the common people who are subjected to these laws.

Big corporations should implement data synchronization and should review their AI policy to see if they are complying with the established ethical norms or not. They should be held responsible in case they inconvenience is caused to the customers.

Various stakeholders within an organization should come together with a common objective to create an inventory for AI related developments so that structural changes can be done from time to time with less effort.

AI is being used by hackers and criminals who interferes with others systems to gain access to their private data to blackmail them. They rely upon AI to manipulate people using social engineering schemes, deepfake technology and data poisoning. On an individual level we should be aware of these challenges and take necessary data protection and privacy measures to protect ourselves from any fraud. On organizational level, companies should protect the confidential information of their customers by adopting better data governance procedures and by conducting threat modelling exercises regularly to identify any immediate risk caused by any external malfunction.

Data algorithms which often lead to unethical biases needs to be regulated on a priority basis. This can be done by making the algorithms more traceable and explainable. Since AI is all based upon data, it is important to have a proper impact assessment that which kind of data is being collected and fed to these systems (Input) and what kind of results they are showing (Output).

The Government and other tech giants like Google and IBM have to encourage AI research and education on a large scale so that the common people are not left behind. This would help to create a base of skilled workforce who will be expert in dealing with AI related problems in the future.

Amendments done to make sectorial policy changes should be uniform and free from confusion and complexities. For example, India has adopted an EHR policy which is not implemented properly which caused confusion regarding the use of ‘digitalizing records’ in the healthcare sector. Similarly, there is a lack of established fixed standard in the financial sector which caused significant problems relating to transactions and storage of information of the customers.

Lastly, the entirety of AI is based on data and hence data should be made available to everyone. Public disclosure of data regarding the government and private functioning which directly affects the well-being of the common public is the need of the time so that transparency and accountability are maintained. This approach would help to solve many of the problems without even getting into the complexities of AI.

CONCLUSION

India does not have any legislation which regulates AI as of now and it is high time that our country starts considering legislating a pan-India law because it will help our country to tap into the future growth prospects in this domain. India has already started taking baby steps regarding the same but the same is not enough. This is a serious issue and should be dealt with on an immediate basis. As discussed above our legislators should consider the EU framework and other Western policies and shape the same according to our ecosystem. The least we can do is to pass an ordinance or something like that which acts as a benchmark for the Indian markets dealing in the field of AI until our legislature takes some concrete steps in this direction. India is a developing country which has booming tech and Its industries. All of these fields use AI in some or other form today. Hence it is required that our government together with these private entities find out the key issues in this domain and try to solve them out by bringing a uniform legislation.

It is important to keep in mind that common citizens do not fall back on taking advantage of the schemes and legislations passed by the GOI. They should incorporate AI in their daily lives effectively like in the field of education and other professions so they can upgrade themselves will in future surely open up a plethora of opportunities and at the same time many existing jobs and professions will seize to exist. That’s why both the government and the people must start to go with the flow and slowly change the skillset required to sustain in this era of AI.

Works Cited

Eloni Hickok, AI in India: A Policy Agenda, CIS,2023

Tambiama Madiega, Artificial Intelligence Act,EPRPS,2023

Oruj Ashna, Artificial intelligence: Ethics and law, Ipleaders (2021), https://blog.ipleaders.in/artificial-intelligence-ethics-law/

Shristi Singh, Artificial intelligence Regulation: Bridging the gap between Europe’s AI act and India’s need for legal framework,TaxGuru(2023), https://taxguru.in/corporate-law/artificial-intelligence-regulation-indias-need-legal-framework.html

Fox and mandal, Artificial Intelligence-The need for the development of a regulatory framework, Bar and Bench(2023), https://www.barandbench.com/law-firms/view-point/artificial-intelligence-the-need-for-development-of-a-regulatory-framework#:~:text=India%20must%20harness%20the%20power,accountability%20exists%20for%20the%20users.

Mitul Jhaveri, Directing AI for better and smarter legislation, The Hindu (2023)

 Amar Patnaik, AI needs responsible regulation, The Hindu BusinessLine (2023)

NAME:- SHIVAM TAH 

COLLEGE :- NIRMA UNIVERSITY