

BENGALURU: Bengaluru-based venture JAN AI, which is working with the state government to bring literacy in artificial intelligence (AI) to Karnataka’s rural reaches, held the JAN AI Summit on Thursday.
JAN AI Co-founder Madan Padaki said the idea is to operationalise AI to enact on-ground change in fields such as agriculture and healthcare, while aligning with sustainable development goals.
He said that JAN AI is strategising with the state’s higher education department to bring AI into the curricula of government colleges across Karnataka.
Padakai said, “We are in conversations with Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) with the mission to collaborate with startups registered on it to help implement our ideas on the ground.”
KDEM CEO Sanjeev Gupta said every dollar invested in the AI ecosystem has the potential to create nearly ten times the GDP impact, and AI can be a platform for inclusive growth with the alignment of investment, skills, and execution.
Padaki said that besides creating opportunities for youth and women, JAN AI is about centralising the human element by making the machine work for the individual, not the other way around.
“We started with three objectives: ensuring awareness and adoption of AI in villages, finding used cases and solutions that are built for rural needs and building district-level collaborations that can act as liaisons for this transfer.”