A parliamentary panel in India has recommended exploring a comprehensive law to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI), despite the government's claim that existing laws are sufficient to address emerging risks.
The report, finalised by the standing committee on communications and information technology, suggests that a combination of existing laws, including the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, may not be enough to prevent the misuse of AI.
The government, however, maintains that these laws already cover risks such as bias, misinformation, and privacy harms, and that India's growing online market, with over 900 million internet users, is already a major player in the global AI landscape.
AI is expected to add $450-500 billion to India's GDP by 2025 and nearly $967 billion by 2035, accounting for around 10% of the country's projected $5 trillion economy.
Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) amended IT Rules to bring synthetically generated information (SGI) or AI-generated content under its ambit, requiring platforms to clearly label AI-generated content and ensure users disclose when content is synthetic.
The new rules also introduce stricter timelines for the takedown of unlawful AI content and grievance redress.
MeitY acknowledged that foreign AI companies do have access to Indian data for training their models, but added that many global AI systems are trained largely on English-language and global internet datasets, which do not adequately reflect India's linguistic and cultural diversity.
The ministry also acknowledged that companies building large language models often do not disclose the datasets used for training, citing ongoing lawsuits involving OpenAI, including a case filed by Indian news agency ANI in the Delhi High Court.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has instituted a committee to review the intersection of generative AI and copyright law, proposing a mandatory system that allows AI developers to use lawfully accessed copyrighted content for training, ensuring creators receive compensation.
