Niranjan Krishna Kumar
For decades, global policy-making has operated on a “break-fix” model. Technologies were released, industries were deregulated, and governments intervened only when social or environmental crises peaked. While reactive governance and policy-making are required, in the current environment of continuous, rapid technological advancements and the burgeoning green crisis and environmental issues, it has become increasingly necessary for governments to be more proactive in their responses, as reactive responses would be too late and could have major consequences.
Getting Ready for the Introduction of AI
Proactivity in governance means having strategic foresight to mitigate systemic risks before they manifest as irreversible harm. Taking the current AI boom and the potential growth and integration of AI and machine learning in the modern day, there are many ways in which they can impact society. Looking through the lens of labor, there is a distinct possibility that many low-level tech jobs will be eliminated and replaced by AI suddenly creating a surge in educated unemployed people.
From an environmental perspective, AI is incredibly resource-intensive and has significant requirements; for example, AI data centers require large amounts of fresh water for cooling, which can have adverse effects on nearby areas. From another perspective, the generative nature of AI, especially when it comes to generating videos, audio, and photos, can have serious consequences, especially on the legal front.
Tools like AI-powered deepfakes and generated images can be used to spread misinformation and commit a crime. AI can also be misused to generate non-consensual pornography. So a country like India would need to get ahead of the problem and address these issues before they occur, for example, strategic ‘buffer zones’—deliberately slowing development or restricting access—could provide the necessary window for society to develop defenses against deepfakes and AI-driven misinformation before they compromise public security, creating legal frameworks to protect potential victims and improve digital safety for the coming age.
If companies decide to build multiple data centers in India, they should be built with consideration for their massive environmental impact and minimize this impact to the greatest extent possible with immense
regulations and guidelines surrounding it to prevent the issues they caused in other countries from happening in India.
A final step would be creating a labor employment program which can either help skill them for the new age or help find organized new jobs for the people who will be deeply affected by this. With this forethought, while we might delay some development, it will ensure ample protection for the people.
Just Transitions a proactive response to the Environmental Crisis
Environmental issues such as climate change, means that the world needs to transition away from environmentally exploitative industries and toward greener ones. This transition, in itself, has one major issue: its human cost. Many of these exploitative industries are immensely labour-intensive and usually the labour involved belong to the lower income bracket, such as the mining industry. Sometimes transitioning them to greener industries might not fully absorb the existing labour. When this was happening in South America, labour unions of South America proposed the idea of JUST transitions, that is, policy should be drafted taking this into account.
JUST transitions means to proactively address the issues that arise from transition out of these
exploitative industries and find clean and green solutions for them. It is something that can also map the future development trajectory by transferring the labour to industries that the country would like to focus on in the future. It is paramount that this be addressed and responded to before the world reaches a tipping point when it comes to climate change.
If we dont react appropriately and wait till the last moment to address these industries and shut them down abruptly, their will be a large surge in unemployment which our societies social services will not be able to address cleanly, many people will have real difficulty
finding any jobs and most jobs that will be available will belong to the informal sector which will be largely unregulated and extremely exploitative. Thus, there is a stress to proactively address this matter before it reaches the tipping point.
Conclusion
Just by looking it at two influential sectors we can see how proactivity can help prepare for the future, and is something that needs to be deeply considered as across all sectors, technological development is currently outdistancing our ability to ethically and legally oversee it, creating a lag that leaves society vulnerable. When this regulatory gap intersects with the looming green crisis, the risks to our social fabric multiply.
We are facing a future where the digital and physical worlds are changing faster than our systems can adapt and rarely leaves room for it to react. Therefore, moving toward a model of strategic foresight is no longer an academic preference; proactivity is a necessity for the protection of the future of
our nation.
About the Contributor: Niranjan Krishna Kumar is a Post-Graduate in Development Studies. He is a fellow of the Public Policy Youth Fellowship
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
Read more at IMPRI:
Bangladesh Democratic Transition: Strategic Balancing In A Changing Region
Acknowledgement: This article was posted by Anish Pujapanda, a Research and Editorial Intern at IMPRI.
