Emerging technologies like AI transforming the world, says Governor R.N. Ravi

Governor R.N. Ravi discusses the transformative impact of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence on the world's future.

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence were transforming the world in such a way that it was difficult to predict what the world would look like in the next 10 years. “Some say it is difficult to say what the world look like even in five years,” Governor R.N. Ravi said at the valedictory function at the conference of Vice-Chancellors held in Udhagamandalam on Friday and Saturday.

Mr. Ravi said that countries such as the U.S. were even funding research in fields like nano-robotics. “The United States of America as you are aware has advanced the ‘Stargate project’, a $ 500 billion project. It’s ambitious, like the Manhattan Project. They have decided that they must have perpetual dominance in the field of artificial intelligence,” he said.

He said that when the first conference of Vice-Chancellors was held in Udhagamandalam in 2022, Artificial Intelligence was not a topic that was on the agenda, but the scenario had changed in just four years.

“Ours is a growing country, perhaps the youngest, large country in the world, with a population that needs to be skilled and made confident,” he said. “Our country, post-Independence, has seen many countries which were behind us, have instead left us behind. Till 2008, the Chinese looked aspirationally towards our IT sector, but that is no longer the case,” said Mr. Ravi, adding that one of the reasons for the decline was that our higher education institutions were operating in “silos”.

“The bulk of today’s research is collaborative, it is a force multiplier,” he added, calling on the Vice-Chancellors to work collaboratively in the coming years. “The time is here for us to leapfrog towards becoming a fully developed nation by 2047,” he added.