Helping build AI-ready generation in India, says Shweta Khurana of Intel

Recognising artificial intelligence (AI) as the next inflection of computing technology that will deliver profound, pervasive benefits across societies, Intel has collaborated with CBSE and NeGD, Ministry of Electronics and IT for nurturing a technology innovation mindset among young students across India.

Intel’s AI For Youth program has already skilled 1,13,487 youth in AI-readiness. The technology giant has also collaborated with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan to set up India’s first AI Skills Lab at Dr Rajendra Prasad Kendriya Vidyalaya in New Delhi. Shweta Khurana, Director - APJ, Government Partnerships & Initiatives, Global Government Affairs at Intel, in an exclusive conversation with Business Today, talks about Intel’s strategic initiatives and helping build an AI-ready generation in India.

When did Intel begin the AI-knowledge initiatives for students? Did this initiative start in India or in another country?

We are collaborating with governments and communities globally to build a digital-first mindset and expand access to the AI skills needed for current and future jobs. Intel’s RISE strategy, our corporate responsibility initiative, aims to make technology inclusive and expand digital readiness for all.

We aim to scale Intel’s Digital Readiness Programs portfolio across 30 countries, by partnering with 30,000 institutions to empower 30 million people for current and future jobs by 2030. For every country, we offer content, train the lead coaches, provide curriculum integration support and localisation support so that our partners can customise the content as per country needs to support program scale and sustainability.

In India, our collaboration with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Ministry of Education has been a meaningful step towards enabling India’s youth to become digitally empowered and effectively utilise emerging technologies such as AI to solve pressing local and global challenges.

In 2019, we co-curated an outcome-oriented and localized AI curriculum for students in grades 8 to 10. The curriculum, based on Intel AI for Youth, was piloted with eight schools and trainings were conducted for youth to create AI projects focused on social impact. In 2020, Intel and CBSE signed an MoU that outlined initiatives geared towards increasing the pace of AI integration in India’s education system. These initiatives included expanding the roll-out of AI curriculum for students, setting up focused AI Skills Labs, and creating AI-readiness by skilling facilitators in CBSE schools pan India.

This was just the beginning. In 2020, we collaborated with National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics & IT to launch Responsible AI For Youth – an initiative to impart AI Readiness skills in State Government Schools.

Are all these AI initiatives a part of Intel’s CSR activity or does Intel have a partnership with the government? If it is the latter, what is the duration of this partnership with the government?

Both. We have raised the bar for ourselves and evolved our corporate responsibility strategy to increase the scale of our work with others to create a more responsible, inclusive and sustainable world, enabled through technology and our collective actions. A key component of this ambitious RISE strategy is our commitment to making technology fully inclusive and expanding digital readiness.

Increased digitalisation requires investment in digital readiness for countries to remain competitive in the global economy. Digital readiness encompasses people’s skills, trust, and use of emerging technologies responsibly and effectively for broader socio-economic benefits.

We have rolled out Intel Digital Readiness Programs globally in partnership with government, academia, civil society, and industry stakeholders as a shared-value initiative to demystify and democratise emerging technologies such as AI. As part of our 2030 RISE goals, Intel is committed to implementing the program in 30 countries, enabling access to 30,000 institutions, and training 30 million people for current and future jobs by 2030 with the support of government and academia.

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Intel’s Digital Readiness Programs include AI for Youth – to empower youth with AI tech and social skills in an inclusive way, AI for Citizens – to demystify AI for the public and community, AI for Current Workforce – to enable and augment existing workforce capacity with AI skills for work and life impact, AI for Future Workforce – to empower the future workforce with necessary AI skills for employability in the digital economy, and Digital Readiness for Leaders – to educate and empower government leaders on emerging technologies.

In India, our programs are implemented as public-private partnerships in collaboration with multiple government organizations.

‘AI For All’ is a great initiative, but do you think four hours is enough for students and the other target audience to understand AI?

Intel recognises that the true transformational value of AI for industries and society at large is dependent on public knowledge and trust. Hence, we focused on basic AI awareness and appreciation through this four-hour self-paced, microlearning program that any non-technical person can take. It describes the value of AI, its potential, possibilities, and limitations in fun and engaging ways for anyone to grasp and then decide the next steps for learning or adoption.

Anyone interested in the AI For All self-learning online course can sign up for free. The four-hour open content resource is divided into two sections -- AI Awareness (1.5 hours) and AI Appreciation (2.5 hours). The segment on AI Awareness provides an elementary understanding of AI, misconceptions around AI and its application potential. The AI Appreciation segment helps learners understand the key domains of AI, its impact across industries, and gets them started on building personal learning plans. At the end of each stage, participants will be given personalised digital badges that can be shared on social media.

To ensure inclusive access, the program is available in 11 vernacular languages for anyone with digital access. The content is also compatible with various talkback applications to make it accessible for visually impaired people.

If a student is interested in pursuing AI further, is the government offering additional course to pursue it further? Is Intel designing any such course (AI skill-based course) for CBSE which can be included as a part of the curriculum or introduced as an optional subject in schools?

Intel, together with CBSE and the Government of India, has been working to integrate AI into the country’s education system. Our comprehensive AI for Youth program is aimed at empowering the young generation to become AI-ready. Together with CBSE, Intel has curated an outcome-oriented AI curriculum for students in grades 8 to 10. It provides immersive, hands-on learning using experiential methodologies covering both social and technological skills. Students in CBSE schools can opt for AI as an optional vocational skill subject from grade 8 onwards and as an optional employability subject in either grade 6, 7 or 8.

Participating youth have learned how to create social impact projects solving various problems on AI. A sampling of projects includes a system to digitally convert handwritten complaints by rural citizens to government representatives, a method to predict depression among school children, a mini robot to remind the elderly to take their medications, a system to monitor bus driver speeding habits, and a drone that searches for missing people. Intel and CBSE, in consultation with academic experts, also developed an orientation manual, curriculum orientation sessions for principals and teachers, and frequently-asked-questions to support school leaders in integrating AI as a subject.

We have also collaborated with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan to set up India’s first AI Skills Lab at Dr Rajendra Prasad Kendriya Vidyalaya, New Delhi in accordance with the AI curriculum specified by CBSE. The lab is a dedicated space for hands-on experiential AI learning and is equipped with technologies that are open source and flexible in nature. It has been designed to support the journey of a learner towards becoming AI-ready as they go from AI learning to AI model training and inferencing. The school is using the lab for all students studying in grade 8 and those who adopt AI as a skill subject in grade 9 and above. It is divided into three areas: a learning corner, a development corner for training on AI models, and an inferencing corner.

Intel and CBSE have also launched the AI Student Community (AISC) - an online community for students and teachers to come together to spread AI awareness in an inclusive way. AISC has been conceptualised to create a community of practice to allow youth to engage in peer-to-peer learning, gain access to AI resources, build more AI projects and create social impact. It is open to all students and teachers pan India.

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To further empower government school students with the appropriate new-age technology mindset, relevant skill sets and access to required tools, Intel collaborated with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, NeGD, to launch Responsible AI For Youth - a custom, national AI education program for students in grades 8 to 12 from government schools across the country. By having students create indigenous solutions to solve local issues, the program underscores the importance of skills-based education and the value of project-related work to harness AI in a sustainable manner and make India’s next-generation AI-ready.

Is Intel spotting special talent under these programs to offer scholarships?

Currently, our focus remains enabling AI skills for students across India. We continue to look for new ways to nurture talent in the country.

Were these programs created by senior engineers in Intel? Are AI experts in Intel actively involved with the students too, in terms of interaction?

These programs were created collaboratively with academic experts, AI technologists and social impact experts to build a high-tech and high-touch experiential learning path that would be most effective for the audience it is intended for. We have also validated our content through multiple government organizations and academic experts across the globe. Further, we ran pilots in four countries and oriented school principals, teachers, and trained students extensively before the global launch.

What has been the impact of all these initiatives?

Launched in collaboration with CBSE and the Ministry of Education in July 2021, AI For All aims to create a basic understanding of and expand literacy around AI. The program’s goal is to introduce AI to 1 million citizens in its first year and it is available in 11 vernacular languages for anyone with digital access. We are also working to make the program accessible to the hearing impaired. Participants are given personalised digital badges that they can share on social media. So far 71,033-course badges have been downloaded.

Intel AI for Youth program aims to help close the AI skills gap, especially in youth. In India, Intel AI for Youth has skilled 1,13,487 students and 12,464 educators across 10,198 schools in 35 states and union territories.

Responsible AI For Youth program was specifically developed for India, has impacted more than 52,628 students from 5,000 cities in 35 states and unified territories across India. It provides an opportunity to the youth from small towns and cities to upgrade their skills, prepare to join the AI-led movement, and contribute to and lead the fourth industrial revolution.

After working with the government to establish the country’s first AI skills lab in Kendriya Vidyalaya, President Estate, New Delhi, AI Skills Lab model for building a dedicated space for experiential AI learning is now being replicated in four other states in India.

Lastly, we partnered with CBSE to launch the AI for Youth Virtual Symposium, to create an enabling AI ecosystem and peer-to-peer AI skills learning. The inaugural virtual symposium in October 2020 featured over 200 multi-disciplinary AI integrated lesson plans in digital format to enhance teaching and learning for grades 6 to 12. Over five days, more than 1,15,561 unique users from 69 countries spent more than 35,983 total hours on learning AI. Intel and CBSE also achieved a new Guinness World Record for the most users to take an online AI lesson in 24 hours.