Artificial Intelligence to Assist Legislators

In Context

• Most mature democracies are now using AI tools for better pieces of legislation and parliamentary procedures.

About Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is attracting the attention of entrepreneurs, political leaders, and policymakers the world over. 
• About:
  • It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. 
  • It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.
• Significance:
  • AI would not replace people but create new opportunities in various fields. 
  • It works on data, and if we could train our machines, it could do wonders for us in milliseconds by automating processes. 
  • AI is creating new opportunities which could not be achieved by traditional technology.

Artificial intelligence tools to assist legislators

• General Parliamentary job:
  • AI tools can assist parliamentarians in preparing responses for legislators, enhancing research quality, obtaining information about any Bill, preparing briefs, providing information on particular House rules, legislative drafting, amendments, interventions, etc. 
• Decision making:
  • They can also empower legislators to make informed decisions by having access to insights into citizen grievances, media opinions, and voices of citizen-centric associations.
• Framing policies & calling attention:
  • Compared to western democratic nations, in India, parliamentarians manage constituencies with a huge population. 
  • AI can analyse citizens’ grievances and social media responses, and flag issues and priorities that need immediate attention. 
  • It can also assist parliamentarians in seeking citizen inputs for public consultation of laws and preparing a manifesto.
• Around legislations:
  • AI can also simulate the potential effects of laws. 
  • For example, various datasets such as the Census, data on household consumption, taxpayers, beneficiaries from various schemes, and public infrastructure can be modelled. 
  • In that case, AI can uncover potential outcomes of a policy. 
  • At the same time, it can also help in flagging laws that are outdated in the present circumstances and which require amendment.

Challenges for India

• Issues with the current laws:
  • For AI to work in India, we first need to codify our laws. The challenges with current laws are they are opaque, complex and there is a huge translation gap between law-making, law-implementing and law-interpreting organisations. 
  • The Indian government has done well to set up the India Code portal, but it cannot be entirely relied upon as a ‘single source of truth’. 
• Interface with complete chain of process:
  • The interface should contain a complete chain, right from the parent Act to the subordinate pieces of legislation passed by the central government and the amendment notifications, enabling any entity to get a 360° view. 
  • Such a requirement becomes more critical in special situations such as COVID-19. 
    • For example, in measures related to COVID-19, the central government issued over 900 notifications while State governments issued over 6,000 notifications on the subject.

Suggestions

• Single window for all the laws:
  • We need to make laws machine-consumable with a central law engine, which can be a single source of truth for all acts, subordinate pieces of legislation, gazettes, compliances, and regulations. 
    • For example, AI can tell us if an entrepreneur wants to open a manufacturing unit in Maharashtra and what acts and compliances are applicable. 
  • If a citizen wants to check the eligibility for welfare schemes, AI can recommend which schemes are eligible, based on details provided by citizens.
• Keeping up with existing infrastructure:
  • India is also innovating and working towards making parliamentary activities digital such as the ‘One Nation, One Application’ and the National e-Vidhan (NeVA) portal.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has given a strong thrust to the Digital India initiative and the digitisation of services. 
  • This momentum needs to be kept up and utilised in the field of law, policy-making, and parliamentary activities, harnessing the power of AI. 

Way ahead

• While doing all this, it needs to be ensured that the use of AI must be encouraged in an open, transparent, and citizen-friendly manner. 
• AI is a powerful tool, but at the end of the day, we should be mindful of the fact that it is a means to an end and not an end in itself.