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The Cyclicity of AI and Human Resilience

This year, the Secretariat has decided to undertake a new policy agenda for the Indian Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Law, 2021. In the first virtual edition of IndoCon, the major focus areas decided for our panels and tracks were central to the theme of transition from the first two decades of 2000-2019 to a new era, amidst the COVID19 pandemic. Unlike what popular opinion might have thought, this pandemic has seemingly accelerated human development (possibly evolution). The vulnerability to deal with pandemics and such biological calamities teaches us as humankind to act humble, think reasonably and bridge gaps between individual rights and group rights. Artificial Intelligence, though, does not determine distinctively between the domains of individual and collective rights respectively, which seems quite problematic, considering that AI induces social control with much pace through cyberspace and ever-increasing reliance on cyber or digital activities. Thus, we have decided on a universalized and India-centric Global theme for the Conference, which is central to the notion of Cyclical AI.

By Cyclical AI, we mean that phases of growth of human society as a whole, and its civilizations need not be linear in terms of analysing risks that might emerge due to the proliferation of AI products and services. We need an economic approach, which adapts and conditions how random uncertainties become certain as naturally as possible.

As India's Principal Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Shri Sanjeev Sanyal had stated once:

"Economics is about managing a series of random shocks and their unpredictable consequences. Economists who believe in "equilibriums" also believe in the tooth fairy."

Incidents such as the Suez Canal block, the COVID19 pandemic and its disastrous waves and even the cases of mutation signal towards the same issue.