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The world of Business Management has undergone a substantial change in the last decade with the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The impact of ICT was first felt in establishing an effective communication channel with Customers and Business Associates of an organization with the use of Internet, E Mail, Mobiles, Messaging services etc.  In the second generation of the use of ICT in business we saw the development of E Commerce where both purchases and sales were effectively handled online. Along with these, Customer service and HR functions also started using Online technologies. Some of the industries which really bloomed with the growing use of Internet in the broadband era were education, Online consultancy etc.

The next generation of Business Development with Technology is happened with the use of Data for Business decision making.  But now we have come beyond all these developments and started finding new uses of Data in Business. The future of Business Management is closely integrated with  innovative use of Data in Business.

Data for Business efficiency is the past. Data for New Business is the future.

Data is today an “Asset” of business and business managers need to find ways of using data not only for decision making and improving operational efficiency but to generate new products and services.

Today’s Business Management strategies are therefore directed on how to use “Data for creating more Revenue”.  Revenue can be generated both by saving on current operations (like replacing manpower with better use of ChatGPT ?)  and also through finding new products and services.

Where feasible, 3D printing can enable development of physical products including prototype development, customization, spare part production etc Products can be embedded with smart  chips to provide feedback for improvement.

What is the future however is to find new “Data Products”, “Produce Data Products”, “Market Data Products”, “Finance data Products” and find the manpower for managing Data Products.

In other words we are looking at a future of Technology Oriented companies where “Data” is the raw material of business and the entire business structure of production, marketing, finance and human resources have to be planned around ” Data as a Business Asset”.

Correspondingly R&D has to be developed to understand the Data Product needs of the consumers. This requires conducting market surveys related to Consumer’s Data Consuming and Usage habits. This is precisely the point where the “Data Protection Laws” create a hurdle for the Data Business. The Data Business Managers therefore need to have a good understanding of the Data Protection Laws and ensure that they are compliant with the law but continue to explore and harness business opportunities with the use of Data.

If therefore EU with GDPR is too restrictive, the choice of business location has to be in a place where the Data Protection Law is industry friendly. At the same time just because land is cheap we cannot put up a factory in a desert. We need to look at other resources and their availability. Similarly the Data Dirven business need to be set up in a location where regulations make it feasible to start and grow the business without un necessary harassment but where the resources such as manpower, Internet connectivity etc are also available.

The “Feasibility” analysis has to be therefore conducted with reference to the Product Idea vis a vis the regulatory restrictions along with the availability of other resources.

It is therefore considered that the knowledge of Data Protection and Laws related to Data Protection is an important input for the Business Management Community.

The future of Corporate Governance is “Governance by Data” and the Business Management education needs to incorporate elements of the new technology developments such as AI, Meta Verse etc from Management perspective along with the relevant regulations.

Privacy Activists and Courts should also remember that they cannot always take a stand against business since this could result in deceleration of business growth. Law Makers need to also ensure that while technology has to be regulated, the regulation should ensure that growth occurs in the desired direction.

Naavi

While many are rejoicing the success of Chat GPT 3 and waiting for the Google’s Bard to come up with a more efficient NLP system, there is an underlying fear that the growth of AGI and ASI may soon pass the critical stage and start creating rogue and malicious AI programs.

We can soon expect many variants of ChatGPT to surface with many ChatBots on different websites all trying to proclaim that they are “AI Powered”.

The Indian Government has taken the first step where the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is mandating that companies who want to project their projects or services as “AI Enabled” will be subjected to certain guidelines.

One concern would be that the “AI tag” could be used to mislead the public and hence the Ministry of Consumer Affairs may bring out some “Disclosure Standards” for claiming “AI empowered” tag.

The accompanying news report suggests that Bureau of Indian Standards is working on standards and will put them in public domain.

Just as Google was caught unprepared with the release of ChatGPT by Open AI, MeitY has been caught off-guard with the announcement that the Ministry of Consumer affairs will come out with an AI standard.

In a way, MeitY should be concerned that in an area where they should have taken a lead, another department has started acting before them.

While we need to appreciate the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and BIS for the initiative, it is necessary for MeitY to also join them and work in collaboration to develop a standard which is sound.

The definition of “AI” may be wide and encompass a simple script that automates some activity to  IoTs and robots working in deep learning domain and fixing some standards for disclosure for Consumer awareness would be tough.

It is possible that there will also be many of the small time players providing ChatBots which provide incorrect responses. Some may be hacked and taken over by malicious characters which will cheat the consumers with the “AI Empowered Certification”.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs will not be able to make a proper assessment of the AI activity since it requires deep understanding of the technology.

However, one aspect that we have been asking for as the first regulatory principle namely “Registration of AI development companies” and “Code stamping of the Registration ID” can be done by the BIS registration.

While incorporation of other ethics of AI may take some time, I advocate that we adopt the known laws to cover the AI regulation at least as an immediate measure.

The Suggested Solution

The solution I suggest is to consider AI products as the responsibility of its owners just as we make parents and guardians responsible for the acts of the Minors.

The transport department has already made rules that if vehicles are driven by minor children the parents will be fined.

We can adopt the same principle here and introduce penalties for

a) Not registering an AI development (applicable to developers)

b) Not registering the use of AI in products (Which BIS may be thinking now)

c) Making the owner of AI liable for any adverse consequence of an AI algorithm even if they are registered (So that Registration does not become a certification of assurance of the functional quality)

This law can be brought in without any new law just by a notification of an explanation under Section 11 of Information Technology Act 2000,

This section already states

Attribution of Electronic Records

An electronic record shall be attributed to the originator

(a)if it was sent by the originator himself;

(b)by a person who had the authority to act on behalf of the originator in respect of that electronic record; or

(c)by an information system programmed by or on behalf of the originator to operate automatically

This automatically means that an output of an AI is attributed to the owner of the AI program. Hence if the output is faulty, malicious or damaging the responsibility falls on the owner of the algorithm. The laws such as IPC can be invoked where necessary.

The owner of the AI algorithm initially is the developer and subsequently the liability should be transferred to the user though the ownership for other reasons of licensing or IPR may remain with the developer.

Hence an explanation can be added to this section to mean the following:

Explanation:

Where the information system is programmed by one person and used by another person, the legal liability arising out of the functioning of the AI algorithm shall be borne by the user.

Where the user is the absolute owner of the algorithm the transfer contract shall include disclosure of the functionalities, the default configurations and the code.

Where the user is only a licensee, the license agreement shall disclose the licensor and the default configuration that affects the functional impact on the consumers.

If the developer does not disclose the required information, he shall be considered as liable for the acts of the AI algorithm.

This suggestion is some what similar to the concept of “Informed Consent” being obtained where the Data Controller discloses the details of processing and data processors to the data subject in a data protection law. The requirement would be a reverse of this consent mechanism where the transferor of the license rights provides an “Informed Disclosure” which the transferee shall further disclose to the consumers.

Since this suggestion does not need any change of law, it can be implemented immediately even before BIS comes up with its recommendations and our own UNESCO recommendation based AI law can be formulated.

Naavi

(Comments welcome)

Last week, CitiBank sprung a surprise on its customers by abruptly closing their accounts in preparation for the merger of its operations with Axis Bank by the end of March 2023.

In the process, many clients having their primary and business critical accounts with CitiBank  found that their business was disrupted.

In earlier mergers this kind of a situation did not arise since the accounts were automatically transferred to the new entity and it was left to the customer to decide what to continue their relationship with the new entity or not over a period of time.

In the meantime, in the earlier mergers of Corporation Bank-Union Bank, all cheques and standing instructions related to the old accounts continued to be operative and no inconvenience was caused to the customers.

It is not clear why Citi Bank adopted this move and why RBI did not prevent this inconvenience caused to the customers.

We are not aware if RBI was aware of this move and had approved  it or Citi Bank had kept RBI in the dark. Also, did Axis Bank take the trouble of informing the erstwhile customers of Citi Bank that such a move was contemplated by Citi Bank ?. The customers of Citi Bank are now the responsibility of Axis Bank and they need to preserve their own reputation for customer service and they seem to have failed in this obligation and opportunity.

It is time for some consumer oriented lawyer to file a PIL and ensure that CITI Bank pays damages to all its customers for suddenly stopping operating accounts and causing both material and reputational harm to them.

See details here

I am trying to figure out if there was any technical reasons for this fiasco. In earlier cases of mergers the merged entity continued to operate the account under the same account number for some time until it was migrated to a new account number. Even the standing instructions and cheque books continued to be operative till they were replaced and migrated.

It was surprising why this did not happen in the Citi Bank-Axis merger case.  It is not clear if this was handled like a merger under RBI  supervision or a business acquisition. In that case Axis Bank had to be pro active and provided some easy options to customers for migration.  Difficult to imagine why Axis Bank failed to use this marketing opportunity.

It should have been possible to set up an intermediary authentication system to direct the customers to the specific data base of account holders transferred to the control of Axis Bank. Probably Citi Bank did not want to help Axis Bank acquire the customers easily and Axis Bank failed to negotiate the merger/acquisition properly. Whichever consultant handled the transition has failed in his duty to guide Axis Bank properly.

We await more information to unfold in this regard from RBI.

Also see this article on which consultant handled this acquisition so inefficiently.

Naavi