Expressing his ‘child-like’ curiosity for technology, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday told Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates that should the NDA be voted to power yet again, money will be allocated for research in cervical cancer.
“My new government will allocate funds to scientists for local research in cervical cancer, we want to vaccinate all girls,” Modi told Gates.
Upon being asked by Gates about what are some technological advancements that he was excited about, Modi said that technology can play a big role in agriculture, health and education sectors.
Prime Minister Modi highlighted his use of AI during the G20 summit for speech translation and delivering addresses in various languages at different events. He suggested leveraging technologies like ChatGPT for continuous self-improvement.
Highlighting his use of AI, Modi asked Gates to take a selfie through his (NaMo) app and then showed him how it could be located through the face-recognition technology. Modi also told Gates that artificial intelligence when used without proper training, is likely to be misused.
“If such a good thing (AI) is given to someone without proper training, it is likely to be misused. I suggested that we should start with clear watermarks on AI-generated content. So that nobody is misguided. In a democratic country like India, anybody can use deepfake. It’s crucial to acknowledge that deepfake content is AI-generated. We need to think about some dos and don’ts.”
Modi also informed Gates about steps India has taken to spur the use of renewable energy in the country.
“I am pleased to say that India is making rapid advancements in renewable energy. We want to make advancements in Green Hydrogen. In Tamil Nadu, I launched a hydrogen-powered boat. I am thinking about having this boat on Kashi-Ayodhya boat so that my movement of Clean Ganga gets strengthened and it sends out a message to the environment-conscious society,” Modi said.
Digital public infrastructure is required, the prime minister said, with Gates adding that India is leading the way.
Addressing the topic of climate change, Modi emphasized the necessity for global recalibration away from metrics such as electricity or steel usage to gauge development, deeming them environmentally detrimental. He advocated for embracing concepts like green GDP and green employment instead.
