AI could add $500m value to Indian economy: Google India head Sanjay Gupta

Google India's country head and vice-president Sanjay Gupta said that Artificial Intelligence could add $500 million in value to the Indian economy. While delivering the keynote address on 'Digital-Led 2020: The New Normal' at ManoramaOnline's virtual digital summit Techspectations on Friday, Gupta said AI would be of great use in life-saving measures like flood warning and disease prevention.

The Google India head said that AI and machine learning were not stuff of science fiction. “It is here, now. Happening right in front of us,” Gupta said. AI is the force behind some of the most routine things we do on the internet like typing a google mail or using the google translate facility. Gupta said it was AI that removed ambient noises during a video conference. The various personalised Google photo facilities are also made possible using AI, he said.

But more than that, Gupta said it could be used to make a difference in people's lives. He said Google had partnered with Central Water Commission and National Disaster Management Authority for sending mobile flood alerts to people in vulnerable villages, another example of AI at work and how technology is employed to better human lives. He said the flood warnings were given 48 hours in advance to a reasonable level of accuracy.

Users can also use Search to enter a query on a flood-affected area to see key information on the current situation in that region.

Gupta also spoke of Google's open-sourced machine learning tool TensorFlow and how the most unlikely of people have used it to provide revolutionary benefit to communities. He gave the example of an Afghan boy who developed an app using TensorFlow that could effectively detect breast cancer. "You can deploy a simple thing like gmail to detect diseases much in advance," he said.