Nasscom, Karnataka Govt Launches 'AI For Good Ideathon' Challenge

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) together with the Karnataka government are launching a competition to discover new ideas in AI (artificial intelligence) and data science. Reportedly, these ideas might be applied widely in agriculture, public services, and education.

Specifically, Nasscom and Karnataka government recently launched a contest under the title "AI for Good Ideathon" to seek new ideas from the public to find out the ability of artificial intelligence to change our lives for the better.

Expressing his thoughts on the competition, Mr. Mohana Krishnan, Head of CoE-DSAI, NASSCOM, said:

The competition is open to candidates who have innovative ideas to implement AI for social problems. And the deadline for idea submissions is on  January 18.

There are two categories for the competition:

• The first category is the solutions that have been executed by participating companies. This category is for new companies in the space with the purpose of acquiring their new ideas over this subject.
• The second category is the ideas which can deliver practical, implementable solutions for attaining each objective. Objects of this category are institutions, citizens, and academia.

The ideas are assessed on the basis of five criteria: practicality, scalability, feasibility, innovation, and the ideas which have the most potential to impact long-term change in India.

Organizers will be selecting innovative ideas from a number of submissions. The top ten ideas will have the opportunity to present their idea to a jury in February. Prizes in cash will be granted to the top 5 ideas in March. Besides, apart from receiving cash, the top 5 ideas are also implemented by the government.

Krishnan added:

Nasscom expresses its expectation in educating the government on the influential role of AI through this initiative.