Artificial Intelligence will not replace entry-level jobs, but nature of work will change: IIIT-Una Director

The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Una, is an institution of national importance. Established at Saloh village in Haroli subdivision of Una district in 2014, it offers bachelors and masters degree programmes in various streams of information technology. In a short span of time, it has earned reputation as a premier technical education institution, which has partnered with other institutes of national repute in furthering research.

Prof Manish Gaur, Director of IIIT-Una, in an interview with Rajesh Sharma, shares his vision on the challenges our nation is facing in artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT), besides the role of the institute in facilitating startups and fulfilling the ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision.

What is your vision for the IIIT-Una in the next decade as AI reshapes education and industry?

One of the focus areas that we see is to establish the institute as a national centre for addressing hill area challenges with the intervention of AI-enabled drones for supply chain management like the delivery of medicines, information and goods, for surveillance and agriculture support. We are experimenting on a drone that can land and take off from water, making it helpful in rescue and surveillance. Since a bulk drug park is envisioned in Una, we look forward to support bioinstrumentation and pharmaceutical research. By making the IIIT-Una a centre of excellence in terms of knowledge, research and in complimenting the industrial and societal needs of Himachal Pradesh and addressing ground-level challenges of the state, we will be contributing towards the ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision.

Is the fear that artificial intelligence (AI) will reduce entry-level IT jobs real?

No, entry-level jobs will not be lost but there will be a paradigm shift in terms of the nature of jobs. With the fast intervention of AI, programming has become very simple and quick. Programmers are no longer needed to a good extent but somebody will have to give specifications as to what to program and how to program. Those specifications, which we call algorithm, have to be designed by somebody, while others will validate the correctness of the output before it goes to some real application. So, the job of the programmers will shift from doing physical coding to validating the coding done by AI.

What is the way forward for the nation so that AI strengthens the job market?

AI expertise is in huge demand to increase outcomes in all fields. The application layer of AI, like ChatGPT and Gemini, require robust hardware. So, we need to focus on manufacturing semiconductors for graphics processing units, which run AI applications so that as a nation, it can be cost effective. Next, semiconductors need a lot of power to run, meaning India has to increase its power production to enable the penetration of AI in all sectors and be able to compete with countries like China.

Do you think the curricula and teaching at our premier technical institutions are on a par with international institutions?

We were aware for the past two decades that AI is going to make an impact but did not anticipate it will be huge and quick. As was with most of the universities in the world, we, too, were not ready to take up this challenge. However, today, India has positioned itself and centres of excellence are coming up at huge investments.

Do you think our curricula has adequate practical exposure rather than theoretical studies?

It is true that we have not yet achieved a milestone but with the advent of the National Education Policy (NEP), we are witnessing tremendous progress. Now, our curricula are more focused on the transfer of technology. Students are more into start-ups, product or process development and are awarded credits for their work in examinations. Adequate finance and infrastructure are available for them. In India, there are more than 50,000 registered startups, including deep tech, developing core technologies and hundreds of them are Unicorns. Giving students an opportunity to experiment without the fear of failure is the key. At the IIIT-Una, students are motivated and provided a safety net to experiment on startups.

What in your opinion more can be done to give a boost to startup and innovation culture?

Almost every institution, state government and the Central government is making efforts and providing money to build innovation and incubation centres. But the point is if 1,000 campuses start working in 1,000 different ways, we are not going to achieve anything great. Instead, the country should focus on three or four thematic areas and for one theme, we should identify a set of universities, institutions, industries, all working together.

What is the concept of a university city?

A university city has a cluster of universities located in a large area along with innovation centres of the state and central governments. The city compliments other infrastructure requirements of the universities like food, housing, market places, healthcare etc, while the university cluster focuses on its objectives. The Union Government has planned four university cities in the country.

What message will you give to India’s youth so that they can stay relevant and lead in this AI age?

The youth should believe in themselves, in the power of the country and be optimistic, innovative, be ready to take up challenges and should not desist from doing experiments.