India cenbank committee recommends AI framework for finance sector

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By Ashwin Manikandan

MUMBAI (Reuters) -A Reserve Bank of India committee has recommended a framework for developing AI capabilities for the country’s financial sector, while safeguarding it against associated risks, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The committee has recommended setting up a digital infrastructure to help build indigenous AI models and a multi-stakeholder standing committee to evaluate risks and opportunities.

It also suggested building a fund to incentivise the development of homegrown AI models tailored for the needs of India’s financial services sector.

“The report envisions a financial ecosystem where encouraging innovation is in harmony, and not at odds, with mitigation of risk,” the RBI said in a statement.

The report contains 26 recommendations under six categories including infrastructure, capacity, policy, governance, protection and assurance.

Other key recommendations by the eight-member committee headed by Pushpak Bhattacharyya, a computer scientist at IIT Bombay, include issuing of an enabling framework to integrate AI with existing digital public platforms such as instant payment system UPI, and designing audit frameworks.

The central bank had set up the committee in December to develop a Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREEAI) for the finance sector.

“The challenge with regulating AI is in striking the right balance, making sure that society stands to gain from what this technology has to offer, while mitigating its risks,” according to the report.

(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)