DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Prime Minister has inaugurated the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit at Bharat Mandapam.

GPAI

Launch - It was launched in 2020.

• GPAI is a 29 member multi-stakeholder initiative.

Aim - GPAI aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

• It is built around a shared commitment to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence.

India - India is a founding member of GPAI, having joined the multi-stakeholder initiative in June 2020 and the lead chair of GPAI in 2024.

• Previous summits - The first three GPAI summits were held in Montreal, Paris and Tokyo, respectively.

The 2023 summit of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) held on 12–14 December 2023, in New Delhi, India.

What is GPAI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems.

• Launched in – 2020
• Aim – To bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.
• GPAI Secretariat – OECD

The 1st 3 GPAI summits were held in Montreal, Paris and Tokyo, respectively.

• Multi-stakeholder initiative – Experts from industry, civil society, governments, international organisations and academia.
• Mission – To share multidisciplinary research and identifying key issues among AI practitioners and to understand AI impacts.
• 4 working groups – Responsible AI, data governance, the future of work, and innovation and commercialization.
• Values – Based on OECD Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence grounded in the principles of human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation and economic growth.
• Membership – 29 members.
• It is open to countries, including emerging and developing countries.

What are the major outcomes of GPAI summit 2023?

• Adopted GPAI New Delhi Declaration on advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI and commitment to supporting the sustainability of GPAI projects.
• A call to prepare a global framework for the ethical use of AI.
• India Shines as Global Hub for AI Innovation.
• India brought together all major initiatives for AI – UN Advisory Group on AI, UK AI Safety Summit.
• AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT) and National Program on Artificial Intelligence and its role in shaping AI ecosystem in India was prominently emphasized.
• Startup community and research community showcased their AI products and services in the expo.
• AI Pitch fest provided an opportunity to upcoming startups to pitch for their innovation and value-added products and services.
• Taking AI among the masses especially among youths and students.

What does the GPAI New Delhi declaration on AI say?

• GPAI 2023 has unanimously adopted the New Delhi declaration on AI.

• Objectives – To mitigate risks arising from the development and deployment of AI systems.

• To promoting equitable access to critical resources for AI innovation.
• To support AI innovation in the agriculture sector as a new “thematic priority”.

“Frontier AI” is defined as highly capable foundation generative AI models that could possess dangerous capabilities that can pose severe risks to public safety.

• Governing principles - A global framework for use of AI should
  • Upheld democratic values and human rights
  • Safeguard dignity and well-being
  • Ensure personal data protection
  • Protec intellectual property rights, privacy, and security
  • Fostering innovation and promoting trustworthy, responsible, sustainable, and human-centred use of AI.
• Contrasts Bletchley declaration – Unlike UK AI Safety Summit which mainly focused only on security and safety risks related to AI, this finds a balance between innovation and the risks associated with AI systems.

Bletchley declaration on AI was signed by 28 major countries including India to initiate a global action to tackle the potential risks of AI.

Researchers at Berhampur University, Odisha have discovered a new species of marine amphipod found in Chilika Lake.

Amphipods

• They are commonly called Scuds or side swimmers.
• They are found commonly in both surface and subterranean freshwater habitats.
• They constitute the most diverse and ubiquitous (being everywhere) group in freshwater.
• Amphipods are a significant group in the marine ecosystem and play a vital role in the marine food chain.
• They also serve as indicators for studying the impact of climate change and health of coastal ecosystems.

Demaorchestia alanensis

• It is a shrimp-like crustacea of genus Demaorchesti and was named Demaorchestia alanensis after global expert professor Alan Myers.
• Features - The new species is white in colour and less than 15 millimetres in length and has 13 pairs of legs.
• While three pairs are used for swimming in the water, eight pairs are used for walking on land.
• The other two pairs are used for capturing prey and feeding.
• The species can be distinguished from the other members of the genus by two to three strong, hair-like structures or setae on the anterior margin of the propodus of the gnathopod.
• It belongs to the subfamily Platorchestiinae found along the Indian coast.

Other such amphipods found in India are Quadrivisio Chilikensis from the seaweeds near Nalaban and the Talorchestia buensis from the West Bengal coastal area.

Saiga Tatarica was changed from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

• The Saiga, the odd-faced antelope has roamed the earth since the last Ice Age.
• They are medium sized hoofed mammal that belongs to the family Bovidae.
• They lives in herds in treeless steppe country.

Hoofed mammal are animals with a hard, nail-like case called a hoof covering each toe on their feet.

• Sub-species - The Saiga has two sub-species
  • Saiga tatarica (found in most of the range) and
  • Saiga tatarica mongolica (found only in Mongolia).
• The antelope were once found throughout the Eurasian Steppe, the great band of grassland that stretches from Hungary in Europe to Manchuria in Asia.
• Today, the animal is found in fragmented populations within Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, according to the Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA).
• Since 2002, the Saiga has been considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to be critically endangered.

Steppes

• A steppe is a dry, grassy plain which occur in temperate climates, which lie between the tropics and polar regions.
• Temperate regions have distinct seasonal temperature changes, with cold winters and warm summers.
• The Steppe, belt of grassland that extends from Hungary in the west through Ukraine and Central Asia to Manchuria in the east.
• Climate is continental with extremes of temperature varying greatly between summer and winter.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company came out with its most advanced AI model, called Gemini.

• It a new multimodal general and flexible AI model, which comes in three sizes.
• Multimodal means it can work, understand, and operate across text, code, audio, image, and video.

ChatGPT cannot work on video at the moment, at least not natively.

• Gemini can understand, explain and generate high-quality code in the world’s most popular programming languages, like Python, Java, C++ and Go.

• Gemini ultra - Gemini Ultra is the first model to outperform human experts on massive multitask language understanding (MMLU), which uses a combination of 57 subjects.

The three sizes of Gemini

• The three sizes are Ultra (which is yet to be launched), Pro and Nano.
• Gemini Ultra, the largest and most capable model, will be for highly complex tasks.
• Gemini Pro will be best at scaling across a wide range of tasks and is now available in Bard for regular users across the world.
• Gemini Nano will manage on-device tasks, and is already available on Pixel 8 Pro.

• Kamban is a title of the Occhans, to which caste Tamil epic poet Kamban is reputed to have belonged.
• Uvachar or Occhan is a community in southern districts of Tamil Nadu, a class of temple priests who usually officiate as pujaris at Pidari, Kali and other Amman (Grama Devata) temples.
• The name Kambar in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala identifies them with nagaswaram and thavil.

They wear also known by names such as Parisaivar, Vallavarayar and Sallirayar.

• U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved two treatments, Casgevy and Lyfgenia, representing the 1^st cell-based gene therapies for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD) recently.
• Lyfgenia is a cell-based gene therapy, uses a lentiviral vector (gene delivery vehicle) for genetic modification.
• Lyfgenia modifies a patient's blood stem cells to produce a modified version of the HBB gene.

It is approved for the treatment of patients 12 years of age and older with sickle cell disease and a history of vaso-occlusive events.

• Kazhuveli Wetland Birds Sanctuary is situated in the Villupuram district of Tamilnadu.
• The Kazhuveli wetland is one of the major wetlands on the Coromandel Coast after the Pulicat Lake.
• The lake is connected to the Bay of Bengal by the Uppukalli Creek and the Yedayanthittu estuary and is visited for nesting by migratory birds on the Central Asian flyway.

Listed as one of Tamil Nadu’s 141 prioritised wetlands, Kazhuveli is also a wetland of international significance and a potential Ramsar site.

• Aim - To help people with disabilities, especially women and youth with disabilities, become active participants.
• Implemented by - The ILO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in collaboration with the Women’s Development Corporation in Maharashtra.
• Through this project, persons with disabilities were trained as Disability Inclusion Facilitators (DIFs).

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a United Nations agency that works to eradicate poverty and hunger in developing countries.