Congress President Rahul Gandhi Interacts With Silicon Valley AI Professionals, Business Founders

Congress President Rahul Gandhi spent the early half of his day on Wednesday meeting with Silicon Valley-based startup entrepreneurs known for pioneering work in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and cutting-edge technologies.

Gandhi was seen engrossed in a panel discussion of experts on various aspects of artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, and their implications on mankind in general, as well as issues such as governance, social welfare measures, and disinformation and misinformation, while sitting in the front row of the Plug and Play auditorium with Indian Overseas Congress chairperson Sam Pitroda and some other key aides who have been travelling with him from India.

The Plug and Play Tech Centre, based in Sunnyvale, California, is one of the largest startup incubators. According to its CEO and Founder Saeed Amidi, Indians or Indian Americans have founded more than half of the firms at Plug and Play. After the event, Amidi told the media that Gandhi demonstrated a thorough understanding of the IT business and his mastery of the most recent and cutting-edge technologies.

During a fireside talk with Amidi and Shaun Shankaran, founders of FixNix Startup, Gandhi attempted to connect all of the innovations with the impact they would have on the common man in India’s rural areas.

“If you want to spread any technology in India, you have to have a system where power is relatively decentralized,” he said in response to a question and then went on to share with the select group of invited entrepreneurs about his personal experience of drone technology and its regulation, which, according to him, “faced massive bureaucratic hurdles”.

Data, Gandhi said, is the new gold and countries like India have realized the real potential of it. “There is need to have appropriate regulations on data safety and security”.

However, on the issue of Pegasus spyware and similar technologies, Gandhi told the audience he is not worried about it. At one point of time he said he knows his phone is being tapped. And jokingly said, “Hello! Mr Modi” on his iPhone.

“I presume my iPhone is being tapped. You need establish rules with regard to privacy of data information as a nation and also as an individual,” he said.

“If a nation state decides that they want to tap your phone, no one can stop you. This is my sense,” he said. “If the nation is interested in tapping phone, then this is not a battle worth fighting. I think whatever I do and work, is available to the government,” he claimed.

Shankaran, who hosted Gandhi for the AI event at Plug and Play, said he is very much impressed about the knowledge he has shown about the latest developments in technology.

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