Editorial 1 : More solar storms brewing after last week’s aurorae as Sun ‘wakes up’
Context
Beautiful though the aurorae are, the events on the Sun that produce them can trigger blackouts on the earth, knock out satellites in space, endanger the lives of astronauts, and affect space weather throughout the Solar System. Studying, understanding, and, in future, predicting them is thus a key goal of solar physics research.
Aurorae
- Aurorae like these are created when some violent events on the Sun’s surface throw up a mass of charged particles into space.
- A geomagnetic storm happens on the earth when these particles become trapped in the planet’s magnetic field and interact with atoms in the upper atmosphere. These interactions finally produce aurorae.
- These storms are rare, occurring around once every few decades. The last time charged particles from the Sun blew into the earth with similar energy and intensity was in 2003.
- And both events happened as the Sun was nearing the peak of its solar cycle — an 11-year period during which the star’s magnetic field flips.
- The peak is when the flip actually happens, creating magnetically active patches on the star’s surface called sunspots.
- These sunspots grow and shrink as solar cycles begin and end. The charged particles that struck the earth on May 10 are rooted in events at these sunspots.
- This is definitely a sign that the Sun is ‘waking up’ and is becoming more active, especially compared to the last solar cycle.
- The supercharged magnetic fields in such sunspots sometimes disconnect and reconnect in fractions of a second, releasing a great burst of energy that sends plumes of charged particles called coronal mass ejections (CMEs) into space.
- CMEs happen together with solar flares — powerful flashes of radiation — and all these active events are collected under the term ‘solar storms’.
Surging currents
- Magnetic fields deflect charged particles, but the earth’s couldn’t prevent many of the particles from slipping through to locations close to the planet’s magnetic poles.
- Here, their interactions with oxygen atoms in the upper atmosphere produced vivid red light, and with oxygen, and nitrogen in the lower atmosphere producing green and purple light, respectively. Thus, the world had its aurorae.
- The fluctuations in the earth’s magnetic field during a geomagnetic storm can send currents surging through cables, like what happened in Sweden and South Africa in 2003.
- These storms can also affect satellites in orbit on which our communication and GPS navigation networks depend.
Waiting for Aditya
- Space scientists have long wanted to anticipate a solar storm before it even begins brewing.
- Currently, the best they can do is catch a CME and/or flares as soon as they happen.
- Many spacecraft that monitor the Sun for these events are parked in the L1 point in space, about 1.5 million km in the earth-Sun direction, from where they have an uninterrupted view of the star.
- One of these spacecraft is Aditya-L1 of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which reached L1 in March this year.
- The principal investigator of its primary instrument, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), is still being calibrated, so it hasn’t chimed in on the events since May.
Conclusion
Of the other instruments: ISRO said on May 14 the ASPEX payload had “captured the enhancement of the alpha particle and proton flux of the solar wind” as signatures of the solar storm. It also said the SoLEXS and HEL1OS payloads had detected “the multiple X- and M-class flares … during the last few days”. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter around the moon also reportedly detected “signatures” of the emissions from the Sun.
Editorial 2 : On the importance of regulatory sandboxes in artificial intelligence
Introduction
As AI applications continue to proliferate across industries such as healthcare, transportation, finance, and more, concerns have emerged regarding ethical implications, data privacy, and potential risks associated with their deployment. In response, many governments and regulatory bodies have turned to innovative approaches such as “AI regulatory sandboxes” to strike a balance between fostering AI innovation and ensuring responsible development.
To regulate but not restrict
- Regulatory sandboxes have become a significant instrument in various countries, used to evaluate innovations within a defined and monitored time frame while being subject to regulatory oversight and controlled constraints.
- This approach serves as a valuable tool for policymakers, furnishing them with empirical evidence regarding the advantages and potential risks associated with emerging technologies.
- Moreover, an evidence-based approach empowers policymakers to adopt a well-informed stance in crafting legal and policy responses that foster beneficial innovation.
- For businesses engaged in these sandboxes, insights gleaned from a study on ‘fintech regulatory sandboxes’ indicate that this controlled environment enhances access to funding by mitigating information imbalances and reducing regulatory costs.
- Such multifaceted utility positions regulatory sandboxes as a catalyst for fostering innovation, supporting economic growth, and ensuring responsible governance in a rapidly evolving landscape of emerging technologies.
- According to data from the World Bank, as of November 2020, there were approximately 73 regulatory sandboxes, both announced and operational, within the financial sector across 57 jurisdictions.
- In India, all financial sector regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, and International Financial Services Centre Authority, have launched their respective regulatory sandboxes.
- Expanding beyond finance, Karnataka has enacted the Karnataka Innovation Authority Act, 2020, establishing an Innovation Authority dedicated to promoting and regulating innovative technologies through a regulatory sandbox model.
- Notably, the recently passed Telecommunications Act 2023 proposed a regulatory sandbox where the central Government has the authority to establish one or more regulatory sandboxes.
The benefits of regulatory sandboxes
- In the discourse surrounding AI regulation, the concept of regulatory sandboxes emerges as a compelling avenue for exploration.
- When one considers the necessity of stringent, detailed regulation or favouring adaptable strategies like soft or self-regulation, the introduction of a regulatory sandbox remains a viable option.
- Firstly, such a sandbox provides a controlled environment for experimentation, offering invaluable insights into AI technologies capabilities and limitations while fostering collaboration between innovators and regulators.
- Additionally, it promotes transparency and accountability by requiring participants to disclose information about their AI models, addressing concerns about opacity and enabling tailored regulations.
- Furthermore, by mandating risk assessments and safeguards, the sandbox encourages responsible innovation, mitigating potential societal impacts of AI applications and nurturing a culture of ethical development within the industry.
- Globally, there is a competitive race to regulate and harness AI’s vast potential.
India’s approach to AI
- In India, NITI Ayog released a discussion paper outlining a national strategy for AI, which led to the establishment of the national AI Portal.
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), released a report on AI Innovation 2023 highlighting India’s AI vision through seven working groups.
- The latest proposal of the Digital India Act, 2023 also talks about regulating AI by creating a separate set of laws and regulations.
- India’s interest in regulating AI is grounded in a multifaceted approach encompassing economic ambitions, ethical considerations, job creation, industrial transformation, and overall societal welfare.
- As a global technology hub, the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence and the Delhi Declaration, India aspires to foster innovation in alignment with its cultural and ethical values.
- A comprehensive regulatory sandbox can be envisioned to guide businesses, researchers, and policymakers, steering AI development towards sustainable growth.
Way forward
- A regulatory sandbox should not be viewed as an approach to directly govern AI, but rather as a progressive step preceding formal legislation.
- It serves as a preparatory measure tailored to India’s specific circumstances, paving the way for future regulatory actions aligned with the country’s needs and developments in the AI landscape.
- By providing a controlled environment for testing innovative AI applications, a regulatory sandbox enables stakeholders to assess risks, refine regulatory frameworks, and foster collaboration between regulators, industry players, and other stakeholders.
- This collaborative approach not only promotes responsible AI deployment but also positions India at the forefront of shaping effective and adaptive regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies.