The draft of a policy on ‘Responsible AI’ is ready and the Karnataka government is set to release it by the end of the month, announced Shreevyas H.M., project director for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cell under the Centre for e-Governance (CeG).

He was speaking at Karnataka AI Mantana, a dialogues series on AI-powered governance held by the State government.

“A lot of thought has gone into the responsible AI policy by all the industry leaders and leaders from the government of Karnataka,” Mr. Shreevyas said.

Evaluated by two panels

The Hindu has learned that the policy looks at various aspects, including governance of AI, handling of sensitive data, security of AI models, and implementation and coordination between the departments, evaluated by two sub-committees. 

It was earlier this year that the Karnataka government formed a Committee on Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI), chaired by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, to develop a comprehensive framework to guide the safe, ethical and transparent adoption of AI across government systems and public services. The committee comprises leading experts from industry, academia, policy and law.

‘Kayaka’ to go live soon

Mr. Shreevyas spoke about how the AI Cell has been supporting departments by building AI applications for better governance and citizen services.

One of the tools currently under testing is Kayaka, which would help government staff carry out routine tasks such as drafting letters, translating documents between Kannada and English, and converting scanned documents into editable text through OCR, easily, all within a secure government platform. Mr. Shreevyas noted that the feature would be live soon.

Training for officers and staff

“We are also conducting training for senior KAS officers, Deputy Secretaries and departments because AI literacy is very important. For example, a section officer may upload a confidential document to ChatGPT or Gemini to improve the language, but that data stays with those platforms and may be available to others,” he said.

With regard to the use of the tools developed by the AI Cell, he said that 3.6 lakh government employees are marking attendance on Kartavya every day, and the attendance of 30 lakh students from government schools is captured in Nirantara.

Conference on AI

Meanwhile, Priyank Kharge, Minister for Information Technology & Biotechnology and E-Governance, inaugurated the international conference on “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Advance Sustainable Development Goals”, organised by the Wolverhampton-Bengaluru Centre for Research & Innovation (1WBCR&I), in collaboration with the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom (UK) and Dr. Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University (MSBCU).

He underlined the importance of responsible adoption of AI to accelerate sustainable development, create meaningful social impact and equip the next generation of innovators to solve real-world challenges.

“AI is not a saviour. It has no conscience, no courage and no compassion. But in the hands of people who possess conscience, courage and compassion, it becomes a force multiplier,” he said.

Published - August 05, 2026 07:45 pm IST