The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a press release pitching the idea of ​​using artificial intelligence (AI) in the unified payments interface (UPI) improving the instant payment system in the country.

On August 10, the RBI acknowledged that UPI is transforming digital payments in India due to ease of use, safety and security. The central bank also stated that adding new features to the platform allows it to serve the diverse needs of the country's economy. He said as the technology advances further, there is potential for the RBI to develop an AI-powered system that would initiate and complete transactions through a conversation.

According to the announcement, the system will be available on smartphones and feature phone-based UPI channels. The RBI believes this will help deepen digital penetration in the country.

In terms of language support, it will initially be available in Hindi and English and will be updated to add more Hindi language support in the future.

While AI certainly has the potential for great good, it can bring with it many risks and challenges. On August 9, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that AI was starting to create risks in terms of "video verification" when he saw the quality of an AI-powered avatar that looked very similar to a real person.

Similarly, the music industry has shown that AI-generated voices can sound similar to popular musicians. For this reason, Universal Music Group and Google began negotiations about licensing artists' melodies and vocal tracks to be used in AI-generated songs.