NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Saturday cautioned against the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media, saying curbing the misuse of technology was a key challenge.
Addressing the 60th Convocation of IIT-Madras in Chennai, the CJI said, “Social media has allowed us to connect with people, removing barriers of age and nationality. But this new communication tool has led to new behaviour like online abuse and trolling. Likewise, AI contains the potential for misuse, mislead, threaten or even bully individuals. Curbing its misuse for harmful purposes will be among the key challenges for you (students).”
Noting that no technology could be neutral if deployed in a real-world context, Justice Chandrachud said technological use had to fulfil and represent some human values. “Therefore, values matter. Science and technology can empower us to secure our liberty, equality and social justice,” he said, adding the Constitution laid down the basis for rights and liberties for growth.
The CJI said technology and AI should create affordances against misuse as human values and individual privacy were of paramount importance. He said “new technology could not exist in vacuum” and had to be made benign with safeguards.
“Technology should facilitate reliable use without causing any trepidation among people about the possible breach of their liberty. It should not create fear in the minds of users through online abuse or harassment… An impact of AI recruitment tools is that it appears to show discrimination or bias,” said the CJI.