US-India Business Council hold first AI taskforce meet co-chaired by Meta

WASHINGTON : The US-India Business Council (USIBC) has announced the appointment of social media juggernaut Meta as the Co-Chair of its artificial intelligence (Al) task force. 

The development came to pass at the inaugural virtual meeting of the task force on Friday (April 26). The council also appointed Inderpreet Sawhney, Chief Compliance Officer and Group General Counsel at Indian IT Giant Infosys, to USIBC’s AI board advisory panel.

Besides, Bala Subramania, Senior Executive at UPS, and Akash Shah, Chief Growth Officer at BNY Mellon, also joined the AI advisory committee. 

“As we advance our Al task force, we are thrilled to welcome these exceptional individuals to our esteemed Al board advisory committee alongside Meta as the co-chair of our Al task force Their leadership and expertise will play a crucial role in shaping our strategic approach to Al, enabling us to navigate the challenges and opportunities across various sectors…,” said USIBC’s President Ambassador Atul Keshap.

The council said that the discussions during the inaugural meeting focussed on cross-sector collaboration in the AI space.

In a statement, the council also said that the new appointments will “strengthen USIBC’s efforts in driving collaboration and innovation in the rapidly evolving field of Al by relying on the top business talent in America and India”.

Commenting on his appointment, Infosys’ Sawhney said, “It is a privilege to be part of (the) Al advisory committee… As part of this Committee, I am eager to share our experiences around the techno-legal aspects of Al that Infosys had the opportunity to shape. With our combined talent pool and data resources, the collaboration between India and the U.S. has tremendous value to unlock”.

The appointments come two months after the USIBC announced a new AI task force in February this year to “align the leadership of India and the US in the realm of artificial intelligence”. Back then, it was reported that the new task force would propel AI concepts, drive the multi-stakeholder processes, and foster development and commercialisation of AI technology. 

India and the US have been exploring partnerships in areas of emerging technologies. In November last year, the two governments inked an agreement to link the startup ecosystems of both nations, particularly focusing on Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET).

Meanwhile, on the AI front, India continues to see rapid adoption. Beyond popular AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, the country is also witnessing the rise of a burgeoning GenAI ecosystem. 

As per Inc42’s India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape 2023 report, the country currently hosts more than 70 generative AI startups that collectively raised over $440 Mn in funding between 2019 and the third quarter of 2023.

The space is anticipated to grow to a market size of $17 Bn by 2030, banking on the exponential growth of the emerging tech ecosystem in the coming years.