It is laudable that the government in J&K has decided to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into governance by constituting a Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC) to vet a proposal on the use of AI in the investigative operations of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Of course this step will remove the chances of bias in investigations of graft cases in a big way as algorithms will rule the roost leaving no room for human intervention.
Reportedly, the General Administration Department has issued an order sanctioning the constitution of a TAC for the project under the title—Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Investigative Operations in the ACB. The committee includes experts and senior officials from various fields to examine the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposal. It will evaluate the project across technical, financial, legal and operational parameters and submit its findings to the Information Technology Department within 45 days. It is intriguing that J&K had been conventionally struggling to counter the scourge of corruption as not much time has passed when the name of erstwhile state of J&K used to figure in the list of top corrupt states in India.
Although after the inception of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government in 2014, things have improved as the incumbent government firmly led the policy of zero tolerance against corruption but still corrupt people do exist in J&K, and the step envisaged to rope in AI in ACB investigations is the need of the hour.
It is likely that with AI taking over a major part of the investigative operations, transparency, accountability and efficiency in the governance will take the driving seat and things will improve drastically.
As it is the requirement that the cases should be probed only on the basis of data and evidence, the leveraging of AI will serve this purpose effectively though there is still a limitation that this new and innovative technology cannot be replaced fully as against human judgement in the cases because that part also holds much significance.
All said and done, the fair implementation, regular audits, and safeguards against AI’s misuse holds the key to success of this proposal to a large extent therefore the policy makers should keep these actions as riders in the policy to make it a foolproof mechanism against fighting corruption. One can say that embracing out-of-the-box initiative like using AI in the fight against corruption is indeed a smart and timely step forward, and much can be expected through this kind of digital vigilance.
