Institutes like TISS must take the lead in researching social consequences of AI: Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Mumbai: Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday urged institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to take the lead in researching the social consequences of artificial intelligence, saying technology must be guided by human values and ethical understanding.

Addressing a global colloquium organised by TISS to mark its 90th anniversary, Pradhan said the world is facing unprecedented challenges ranging from wars and migration to mental health concerns and disruptive technologies. “What will AI lead us to? Will it create new jobs? Will it create new business? Or will it take away our jobs?” Pradhan asked. “Whether technology will be guided by human values or technology will lead its own way, this colloquium has to find out the answer.”

He said institutions dedicated to social sciences have a crucial responsibility in examining how emerging technologies are reshaping societies. “Human capability advances faster than social understanding,” he said, adding that “sustainable progress requires modern capability, also social wisdom,” underlining the urgent need for social sciences to provide deeper ethical and societal perceptions in an age of rapid technological transformation.

Pradhan urged scholars from more than 25 countries attending the event to examine India’s development experience as a global case study.

Vineet Joshi, secretary of higher education, called for “an urgent need to create an exclusive global ranking framework for the social sciences based on their contribution to theory, building interdisciplinary applications and social innovations”. He highlighted the importance of action-oriented, community-engaged research in addressing global challenges such as inequality, migration, climate change, conflict, and rapid urbanisation. Joshi also spoke about leveraging foreign campuses and global faculty to raise the quality of social science research and teaching.

TISS is forming Global Social Science Association (GSSA) to serve as an international academic platform for exchanging ideas and conducting collaborative multidisciplinary research, said TISS vice-chancellor Prof Badri Narayan Tiwari. The GSSA will be formed in partnership with approximately 25 participating universities from both from India and overseas during the three-day Global Colloquium on ‘Building Bridges in Social Sciences’ that was inaugurated on Monday. The institute’s chancellor D P Singh was also present at the event.

Earlier in the day, Pradhan inaugurated India’s first integrated carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) field laboratory facility under Bharat Innovates 2026 at the IIT-Bombay’s campus. The facility demonstrates a self-reliant, closed-loop carbon mitigation approach rooted in indigenous innovation.