The Standing Committee on Communication and Information Technology was submitted to Lok Sabha in the 19th report and laid in Rajya Sabha on August 19th, calling for deeper integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the information and broadcasting sector of India.
In its 11th report (18th Lok Sabha), the committee stated, “On May 26, 2024, when adopting the age of artificial intelligence (AI), DD Kisan introduced two AI News Anchors, AI Krish and Ai Bhoomi. (b) News related to the mandis (c) of agriculture.
The committee also highlighted the Ministry of Information's initiative to launch “Samvad” to launch “Samvad”, describing it as a “real-time information dashboard,” and said the ministry “integrating AI tools into DD or its web portal/social media translation module.”
While commended these efforts, the committee proposed additional areas for AI integration.
(i) Explore partnerships with academic institutions and private sector AI companies to develop new AI applications in broadcasting.
(ii) monitor trends in misinformation and misinformation and identify potential issues;
(iii) Integrate AI tools into the content creation process.
(iv) Automate and integrate services and AI tools that require minimal human interference.
(v) AI solutions for document management, predictive analytics in policy making, and optimization of management processes.
(vi) Strengthen the efficiency, accessibility and engagement of the Ministry's information dissemination process through AI-driven innovation.
In response to the committee, the ministry said: “AI-based content generation can bring significant benefits to DD news in several areas, such as AI anchoring recorded programs, AI generation narration, automatic identification of packages and soundbites, and translation into multiple regional languages. The tools bring innovative ideas and energy to content development, such as tools featured in the recent Waves Summit.”
The committee requested the ministry to “use the benefits of AI in its concrete plans/roadmap, AI integration, and content creation, programming, broadcasting, and more.” He also said, “We are recognized for our partnerships with academic institutions, collaborations with public-private partnerships (PPPs) and efforts using the AI tools featured in the recently organized Waves Summit.”
To streamline these initiatives, the committee recommended that the ministry “explor the possibility of appointing a Nodal AI officer who is only responsible for all AI issues and coordination in other ministries/departments.”
The report reflects the council's push to leverage AI-driven innovations to improve broadcast efficiency, multilingual accessibility and real-time information dissemination across India.
