India is well positioned to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make software development more productive in the country, Google said in a blogpost on Monday.

The post detailed the recent between fireside chat, Dr. Jeff Dean, Chief Scientist, Google DeepMind and Google Research, and Dr. Pramod Varma, CTO of EkStep Foundation and former Chief Architect Aadhaar & India Stack.

The experts delved into unique opportunities and ethical considerations for AI in India, and the country’s position as a leader in responsible AI innovation.

According to Dean, India can capitalise on AI due to its strong foundation in engineering and computer science.

He emphasised the importance of education and skill development in AI for students and software developers.

“Young students in India are eager to understand the shift from more traditional computer science to learned based approaches for solving all kinds of problems. You’re going to see more students wanting to enter this kind of study and field of endeavor,” Dean said.

“AI is going to make software development much more productive, and India is especially well positioned in this space,” he added.

Dean noted that AI also has the potential to bridge gaps in underserved communities. AI also has a big role in healthcare and education — from its ability to personalise education and provide greater access, to enabling doctors to make more informed medical decisions, Dean said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Varma emphasised the importance of leveraging AI to address the diverse linguistic and cultural landscape of India, aiming to increase productivity, efficiency, and address literacy gaps, while lowering costs.

He also called the need to democratise AI tools and bridge gap between people and the technology with more availablity and accessibility.

“You have to bring people and AI together to drive their productivity and ability to access information and knowledge which they don’t have. There’s a huge divide even today. AI tools, compute, and expertise all need to be democratised,” Dr. Varma said.

He also stressed on the need for checks and balances as AI becomes increasingly widespread. Dr. Varma advocated for a focus on regulating the quality of services powered by AI, rather than attempting to regulate the technology itself.