Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday called for addressing ethical considerations and eliminating algorithmic bias while enhancing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
“Under the Reserve Bank of India's RBI@100 objective, we aim to develop state-of-the-art systems for high-frequency and real-time data monitoring and analysis,” Das said at the Reserve Bank of India's 18th Statistics Day conference on Friday.
“The focus now, of course, is on enhancing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to analyse unstructured text data. In doing so, ethical considerations need to be addressed and algorithmic bias needs to be eliminated,” Das said.
He emphasized that statistics is increasingly being used as a preferred tool for making inferences in various fields. Furthermore, he noted that statistics is evolving from a field that simply collects facts to one that focuses on interpreting data and drawing conclusions, especially taking into account the level of uncertainty.
He said the central bank is making efforts to leverage its vast computing power and growing digital footprint to analyse expectations, sentiment indicators and measures of policy credibility from alternative data sources. The use of alternative and non-traditional data sources proved invaluable during the toughest phases of COVID-19-related lockdowns and restrictions.
“Indeed, its usefulness extends beyond times of crisis. Data management systems need to catch up with the use of non-traditional data sources as policy inputs, and in doing so, they need to keep in mind the importance of filtering out the noise and capturing the signal from high-frequency indicators,” he said.
