DailyPost 1917
BANGALORE – SECOND LARGEST AI TALENT POOL
The world is data and what we do with that data. Talent and technology and the vice versa, have driven our world for the last so many years and it would more in the years to come. The way AI has been used, utilized and commercialized by the world’s top IT companies, leaves us with no doubt that it has already emerged as the apex technology of the day. Whosoever wins the AI race will win the world in literally every way. Any technology runs on talent, an ecosystem that supports it and the capability to commercialize in the best possible and the fastest possible manner. Bangalore seems to be blessed that way . Will it pull off an AI revolution in the country?
As per a recent survey Bangalore has the second largest Artificial Intelligence, (AI) talent pool in the world. It comes close on the heels of the top four cities in the US; San Francisco, New York, Boston and Seattle. The ranking has been done for top 50 AI cities, measured by TIDE Framework and listed by Harvard Business Reviews. The framework covers indicators like talent pool, investments, diversity of talent, evolution of the country’s digital foundations. ”Investments, diversity of talent, cost of living, and inclusivity were also analyzed for the ranking of the top 50 AI cities across the globe.” AI hotspots in the developing world because of *cost of living advantage* may turn out to be a powerful draw for diverse talent.
Diversity and inclusivity is essential for this type of a talent pool. It matters to the reviewers as ”AI developers are influenced by their own world views, which, in turn, guide them in their selection of applications, data sets and training of algorithms.” Bias in AI development can push the bias and immaturity into the product development and more often than not, these are complex technologies, ending up into a black box product. Objectivity and empirical approach that diversity and inclusivity provides is the lifeline of AI product development, which can impact every single sector. How does having a talent of this nature, treated as an ideal, mean for Karnataka and India?
Our approach to this talent will decide where India as a country reaches in this field? What would it mean to the Indian population and India which is in dire need of technology? We are still struggling with normal software development, as we have seen the recent case of Income Tax software development. Will we remain just an AI talent pool geography? The talent pool will keep working for or exporting its talent while being physically located in Bangalore. The best of the IT services we exported to the world in the earlier phase, and left overs for our own country, as seen in the quality of IT services all across. How do we use this talent pool for all our requirements? Mostly, they are not under our control too. An AI talent rich country is likely to end up as an AI poor country.
HAVING TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH, HOW WE CONTROL AND USE IT FOR OUR DEVELOPMENT IS MORE IMPORTANT.
Sanjay Sahay
Merry Christmas