TRAI calls for independent statutory authority to regulate AI in telecom
The regulatory body has released recommendations on leveraging AI and Big Data in the telecommunication sector
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently released its recommendations on ‘Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Telecommunication Sector’. The regulatory authority stated in a press release, dated July 20, 2023, “The impact of AI is not limited to only the telecom sector. AI has the potential to impact a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, finance, transportation, education, agriculture and many others. Therefore, it is important to take a holistic approach for examining the impact of AI across all sectors rather than focusing only on telecom.”
“As AI technology is still evolving, it took time to examine and bring out the multiple aspects of AI/ML in the telecommunication and other sectors by studying various international practices which are also in the nascent stage,” it further added.
In the past, in order to create a roadmap for AI, emerging technology and its use in the communication sector, vide letter dated June 6, 2019, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had sought TRAI’s recommendation on the provision of “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in a synchronised and effective manner to enhance the overall quality of service, spectrum management, network security and reliability”.
In view of the impact of AI in all sectors, the framework which has to be suggested for telecom cannot be treated in isolation and hence a common framework covering all the sectors is being proposed.
The broad tenets of the suggested regulatory framework should comprise of an independent statutory authority, a Multi-Stakeholder Body (MSB) that will act as an advisory body to the proposed statutory authority and categorisations of the AI use cases based on their risk and regulate them according to broad principles of responsible AI.
The DoT has been directed to use the 'Digital Communication Innovation Square (DCIS)' scheme to support startups and other organisations for holding AI/ML events such as challenge programmes and bounty programmes for demonstration of their ideas, collaborating with stakeholders and improvising their solutions or products.
