U.S. critical technology envoy hails Indian ‘sophistication and ambition’ amid quantum, AI grants

Industry Roundtable on India – US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: PTI

As part of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), a defence and technology cooperation framework between the United States and India, grants of $1,25,000 apiece were awarded on Thursday (October 10, 2024) to 17 pairs of Indian and U.S. researchers. The U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund has provided these grants to quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence projects led by Indian and U.S. researchers.

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Seth Center, the U.S.’s Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology, hailed Indian researchers and entrepreneurs’ “sophistication and ambition” in an interaction with presspersons. The grants have been provided to research projects focusing on AI-enabled detection and measurement of oral cancer, air quality, seizures, lung health, pathogens, mosquitoes, and several other use cases.

Also among the recipients are quantum computing researchers. While quantum computing is “is not nearly as ready [as AI] in terms of use cases,” Dr. Center said, the grants were part of “build the research foundations” for future breakthroughs.

“Essentially, if you have an enormous amount of data and you apply computer vision to it, there’s going to be all kinds of diagnostic opportunities that are going to not only radically accelerate and improve the precision of screening, but also make screening far more accessible than it would be,” he added.

‘Trustworthy AI’

“The world needs a governance architecture that enables safe, secure and trustworthy AI that is interoperable [and] can apply within diverse societies,” Dr. Center said in response to a question on AI safety. “I’ve worked very closely with my Indian counterparts in a bunch of multilateral settings and bilaterally to get this architecture right,” he added, saying that safety, trustworthiness and common standards were key in the bilateral discussions on AI between India and the U.S.

AI systems need to be “cognisant” of linguistic and cultural diversity, Dr. Center said. On compute capacity — the physical infrastructure needed for running AI systems — Dr. Center pointed to the increased efficiency of newer models, and “enormous gains in AI capabilities are being enabled by much smaller models using much less compute” as a major emerging factor in the sector.

On electronics manufacturing, particularly semiconductors, Dr. Center said that “these are long-term propositions and the reason they are long-term propositions is you have to build complex ecosystems,” and that patience would be required due to the nature of the industry.

In response to a question on hesitations surrounding technology sharing as an impediment in India-U.S. defence relations, Dr. Center indicated confidence on “breaking down some of those barriers” and hinted at “some really substantial markers that are going to demonstrate that the positive momentum … is more than rhetorical”.