Engaging the world's most popular leader

Meeting with the most popular leader in the world for a one-on-one exchange is an honor and a privilege. But having such an opportunity for substantive exchange on a technical subject such as AI and then giving a keynote to a conference involving the country’s administrative leadership is a rare honor. In this post, I describe why I reached out to the Honorable PM of India, give a sense of the meeting (without detailing everything), and some of the follow-ups.?

Why did I think one of the most busy people in the world might meet me? This is because I was aware that Hon. PM Modiji follows a three-step process (see the view of an insider ): (i) he is extremely well informed: he is connected to the ground, he has the pulse of the nation, and he has a strong interest in using technology for national good (see an example) , (ii) he listens to experts (my meeting is aligned with this component), and (iii) he takes timely decisions and ensures execution. While he was the Gujarat CM, I met him thrice for an hour-long meeting each time to discuss why India/Gujarat needs to become a player in the Knowledge Economy and why India/Gujarat needs to develop a research university and an innovation culture by learning from what allowed the Silicon Valley to develop (2008 Briefing , 2009 briefing ).? With this background, I sent the following brief to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).?<click on the links to gain deeper insights>.

Connecting to the expansive, exciting, and aggressive AI vision portrayed by the PM , Mr. Chandrasekhar , Sri Nilekani , Prof. Sood, and Dr. Karandikar , here are some quick thoughts:

1. While the? US and other countries have led AI Phase 1 (Symbolic AI) and AI Phase II (Statistical/Generative AI), India should and can dominate AI Phase III (Neuro-symbolic AI).

a.? Neurosymbolic Artificial Intelligence (Why, What, and How)

b. Building Trustworthy NeuroSymbolic AI Systems: Consistency, Reliability, Explainability, and Safety

Sample idea: We can build small or medium/targeted/efficient/high performance/custom/safer models using post-generative (neuro-symbolic) AI technology that is domain and task-specific, exploits high-quality data, human expertise, and existing domain knowledge, and uses Government platform/infrastructure to provide exchange/dissemination benefiting model developers and users/customers.

2. Creating talent, technology, and companies with experienced leadership.

[E.g., (A) I created three world-class academic research organizations training exceptional graduates (highest level of success – running unicorn, multiple startups, top industry positions, and academics); launched three AI startups, each involving federally funded research and technology licensed (my students transferred to help run the companies), (b) I am advising and working towards launching Ekagrid, a private AI research university in Bangalore (looking for sponsors, more at ?????????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ????. ???? ???????????????????? ???????? ???? ?????????????????? ?????? ???????????? (along the model discussed when Hon. PM was CM- I have known him since the late 1970s (“Why Gujarat (India) needs much better Higher Education & Research to Succeed in Knowledge Economy & what we can do about it ?” photo )

What is actionable: robust central govt/state funding addressing AI talent quality and quantity needs (addressing challenges I have learned about through many conversations with Indian academic and industry leaders, what I have learned from engagement National Science Foundation and equivalent in 10 developed countries); bringing ideas to the incubation and infrastructure plans the government has already identified (based on what is learned through my own experience in conducting foundation/applied/translational research and technology/IP in academia and transferring to VC funded startups)

3. The government has rightly emphasized Trustworthy/Responsible AI, AI Safety, privacy and security, AI Toxicity/AI bad (fake news, misinformation, deep fakes, etc.), and has a pragmatic/enlightened view of regulation. These are extremely well-aligned with the visions I have introduced about humanity-inspired AI , civilizing AI and value-inspired AI (for more ), along with a variety of resources (e.g., ImageNet equivalent collection of fake news for text and images) my team has built and international meetings/workshops we have organized to build communities.

What is actionable: The Indian government’s enlightened vision allows it to offer a distinct leadership through various international events and develop Indigenous resources and platforms.

4. AI for critical applications: Critical areas such as healthcare, where AI interacts with humans, have more demanding requirements (my team works with mental health, diabetes, neurodevelopment and cognitive disorders, asthma, and more). Other critical areas include those with the potential to cause harm to humans or of national priority.

?There is more to discuss and explore, but I will stop here for brevity.

On Dec 25 (two or three days after I reached out to the PMO), I got an invitation to meet the PM on Dec 27. Soon after the invite, on the direction of the PM, I was also invited to give the inaugural keynote at the start of the third annual conference of Chief Secretaries (the PM chairs this conference).? In the past, Modiji had also made me meet Chief/Principal secretaries as a follow-up to my meeting with him. With the participation of 150-200 of the government's top administrators/bureaucrats/IAS officers (including the Chief Secretaries of all states), I later realized this was quite a privilege and honor! I had only one day to prepare the presentation, but several team members came through.

I went to Niti Aayog directly from the Airport as my AMD-DEL flight was 1.5 hours late (so no time to go to a friend’s home, have lunch, and change clothes). My logistics were managed by the secretary from the ministry that handles infrastructure (i.e., the one who works with Gadkariji), who took me to my meeting with the PM. The meeting was held at the PM’s residence. I was proud to experience India’s stately PM Residence. One of the impressive areas was the waiting room– it had a sitar, veena, dilruba, fresh flowers including Rajnigandha, and soft Indian classical music flowing from an iPAD. Our meeting was in the room where the cabinet meetings are held (you can see it at min 1.48 with a massive elliptical table and an 85 or 100-inch screen, which I used my presentation to walk through some of the points I wanted to convey). I was seated where the military guy with the cap is shown in the following photo. Modiji was seated at the head, as shown in the photo. His PA was seated further back on the right side of him.

Here is the keynote I prepared for the 3rd Annual Conference of Chief Secretaries. Positioning India for Global Leadership in AI (Trustworthy, Value-based Neuro-symbolic AI) and AI Applications (Health, Education, CyberSecurity ) . I used parts of it in my briefing to the Hon. PM - obviously, I wanted to use only some of my time in presenting. Modiji is a great listener; his interest and grasp of technology puts any business or political leader to shame, he knows what he wants from something that takes over a half hour of his very precious time, and I also wanted his guidance on the topic of developing a world-class research university focused on AI. I received excellent guidance as well as follow-up support through his office.

We have also had some personal conversations since I first met Modiji 50 years ago: he has a sharp memory (e.g., he knows the names of all my family members), and he is very warm. Photos were taken by the official photographers at the end of the meeting.

At the conclusion of our meeting, I was taken for my keynote. The conference facilities at the newly completed Mandapam are world-class - here are a few photos . I was introduced by the secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (he reports to Vaishnaviji and Chandrasekharji). It seems my talk was very well received; several of these chief secretaries and secretaries for key ministries are now in the network.

I already visited the GIFT city as recommended by the PM and saw world-class facilities and infrastructure. Some photos from my trip. Background on the GIFT city (also see recent update ).

My response to a question: what was your impression? Re. Hon. PM: In one word, he looked radiant. In command, charming but totally focused on uplifting the nation, exceptionally informed about the technology. About the bureaucrats (IAS officers): Every government secretary I met routinely works until 11 pm to midnight each day (Modiji works till midnight), and no one has complaints. The conference was totally professional and efficiently run, highly collaborative, and everyone was focused on the business at hand, with high technology awareness. You would not be able to say who is from the ruling party of a state and who is from an opposition-run state.

Here is an interview that discusses my meeting with the PM and the keynote: Amit Sheth on Making India the AI Hub of the World