New Delhi: Artificial Intelligence and telecom infrastructure have become vital for each other, but concerns remain around the working of AI-based systems as it can affect millions of users, a top official of telecom regulator Trai said on Wednesday.
While speaking at Trai–STPI Pre-Summit Event on ‘AI in Telecommunications’, Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said that telecom networks are the primary carriers of AI, and AI on the other hand, provides an intelligent layer of telecom.
He said telecom service providers are increasingly using AI for network planning, optimising network operations, predicting maintenance needs and enhancing consumer experience to combat fraud, detect spam, and automate complex workflows.
“At the same time, we must acknowledge that AI-based systems raise certain concerns. Automated decisions based on AI systems may impact millions of users. Therefore, making transparency, accountability, and human oversight indispensable when we deal with the use of AI,” Lahoti said.
He said the AI systems deployed by telecom service providers are detecting with AI and also blocking with blockchain technology a total of nearly 400 million voice calls or messages per day.
Lahoti said that with the roll-out of 5G, rapid growth in data consumption, expansion of IoT, early developments of 6G, telecom networks have become highly complex and dynamic systems. Managing this scale and complexity through conventional approaches is becoming increasingly a Herculean task.
“Artificial intelligence has therefore emerged not merely as an efficiency tool but as a foundational capability also. Artificial intelligence is therefore reshaping the telecommunication sector, especially in India, where we have more than 1.2 billion telecom subscribers and around 1 billion data users,” Lahoti said.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar said that AI needs to be developed at a scale where it can benefit the masses, especially people in rural areas with voice-based services.
“We have to build trust. Only then will the benefits of AI flow and be acceptable to the masses. Managing discussions on data ownership, which were earlier on the marginal sidelines, will now come on centre stage. Discussions on data ownership, privacy, bias, transparency, accountability, now move to centre stage,” Kochhar said.
He said that pricing of AI technology is also a concern, along with the risk related to the privacy and security of people.
“TRAI, your consultative and principle-based approach strikes the right balance between innovation and safeguard. We need adaptive frameworks and those frameworks must focus on transparency, security, privacy, protection, and accountability,” Kochhar said.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar said that AI needs to be developed at a scale where it can benefit the masses, especially people in rural area with voice-based services.
“We have to build trust. Only then will the benefits of AI flow and be acceptable to the masses. Managing discussions on data ownership, which were earlier on the marginal sidelines, will now come on centre stage. Discussions on data ownership, privacy, bias, transparency, accountability, now move to centre stage,” Kochhar said.
He said that pricing of AI technology is also a concern, along with the risk related to the privacy and security of people.
“TRAI, your consultative and principle-based approach strikes the right balance between innovation and safeguard. We need adaptive frameworks and those frameworks must focus on transparency, security, privacy, protection, and accountability,” Kochhar said.
