Zoho CEO calls for a debate on AI and its impact on India, interestingly Zoho doubles down on Generative AI solutions

A petition has been started on change.org, ‘India and AI: Need for Urgent National and International Debate.’ The petition has been signed and released by Pahle India Foundation’s Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, Zoho Corporation’s CEO Sridhar Vembu and iSPIRT Foundation’s Co-Founder Sharad Sharma.

The petition submits, “It is now evident that the emergence of powerful AI, with all its transformational potential, could also be the harbinger of chaotic – and potentially catastrophic – consequences for humanity.” Furthermore, the petition cites Future of Life Institute’s Open Letter asking AI labs worldwide to pause training for AI systems more powerful than Open AI’s GPT4 for six months.

The petition aims to start a debate to understand and assess AI’s possible impact on all aspects of human life. The petition submits, “This will enable the global community to engage, negotiate and agree upon the rules of the game for the future development of AI that serves the goals of the global community and does not cross ethical thresholds. The thus-far-no-further principle has been invoked in the past as well.”

The petition claims that AI offers a huge opportunity for India to “raise labour productivity, build a knowledge society and further enhance our demographic dividend.” However, the petition also submits that “AI could put millions of jobs at risk almost overnight. The dizzying pace of the ongoing digital revolution has meant that AI is inveigling itself into the economic, psychosocial, and cultural aspects of human life at an unprecedented speed.”

Furthermore, the petition submits, “The downstream effects of adopting technologies such as AI without essential due diligence and appropriate safeguards can cause unprecedented disruption of the existing social order. We know that technological progress is inexorable and overall beneficial. Yet we have to manage it carefully to avoid unmanageable socio-economic disruptions at scale.”

The petition submits, “India should also use this time to draw up its own blueprint for AI development so as to harness all possible benefits of AI while minimizing socio-economic disruption.” Furthermore, the petition urges all stakeholders to join the debate to evolve a consensus on how to utilise the technology.

The petition concludes, “Against this backdrop, we urge all stakeholders – IT researchers, policymakers, academicians in other disciplines, industry leaders, and members of the civil society – to join this vital debate that will help evolve a national consensus on how best to utilise this powerful technology for achieving our national goals and meeting the exploding aspirations of our young population.”

Zoho’s Working on Generative AI Solutions

It is pertinent to note that while Sridhar Vembu calls for a debate on AI applications in India, his venture Zoho is looking towards releasing their own generative AI solutions soon, according to Analytics India Magazine’s report. The report submits that Zoho is doubling down on investment efforts to release AI solutions in 2023 and 2024.

Furthermore, Zoho’s Global Head of Market Strategy and Thought Leadership – CX, Prashant Krishnaswami said that Zoho has identified possible use cases, “For instance, generative AI can help sales and support personnel compose elegant responses to customers; it can summarize a long history of a customer’s relationship for a new employee who’s taking over that relationship; it can help coach employees and make them more effective at communicating complex ideas and situations; it can generate variations of messaging for A/B or multivariate tests run by marketers. Generative AI can also help write uniform, consistent product descriptions to use in commerce. All of this is just around language. If you look at visual use cases, the possibilities expand much farther,” to AIM as reported.