Gujarat govt sets up Artificial Intelligence (AI) Taskforce for technology driven governance

Ahmedabad, Dec 16 (PTI) The Gujarat government on Monday announced formation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Taskforce to adopt technology driven governance in order to "keep the state in leading position in social and economic development".

The term of the task force will be for one year and will be extended on a year-on-year basis, a government release said.

The task force was formed as per the announcement of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in the Chintan Shibir (annual brainstorming conclave) held in Somnath on November 21, it added.

"The aim of the AI taskforce is to adopt technology driven governance and keep the state in a leading position in social and economic development. The principal secretary of science and technology department of the state government will be the chief of the task force while deputy-director of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and E-Governance of Gujarat government will be its member-secretary," it said.

The director of ICT and E-Governance, director of IIT-Gandhinagar, director of IIIT, experts of India AI mission and experts of private companies like NVIDIA will be its members, it said, adding the names will be announced later.

"The scope of work of the AI Taskforce will be strategic planning to build AI roadmap and its implementation in Gujarat, AI adoption in different government and non-government sectors, policy advocacy to make AI systems in Gujarat in line with India AI mission and national AI framework, collaborations with education experts, industry leaders, start-ups and international AI ecosystem. It will also include capacity building for AI literacy, resource mobilization and skill development, data security and to create technology infrastructure," the release said.

"The initial period of this taskforce will be of one year. After a year, the working of the taskforce will be reviewed along with its scope of work. The extension will be done after the review," the release informed.

The release further said the state government had earlier signed an MoU with Microsoft to establish Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence at GIFT City in Gandhinagar. PTI PD BNM