Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) has instituted the very first School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI) which will host multiple state-of-the-art laboratories.

IIT Delhi alumnus Anant Yardi is playing a considerable role in mainstreaming machine learning in India with a contribution of $10 million (? 75 crore), an IIT press release from Friday showed.

President and Founder of Yardi Systems, Yardi pursed BTech at IIT himself, after which he went on to study engineering at University of California at Berkeley. With this contribution, IIT's ScAI could up its game further by setting up labs with the right tools to enable study and innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science technologies.

What will AI school do?

According to Professor Mausam who founded ScAI, the school will "not only develop and support the growth of AI researchers in the country, but also strengthen IIT Delhi's place on the global AI map."

Speaking on the eve of IIT's 52nd convocation ceremony, Mausam thanked Yardi while adding that his "contribution will greatly enable the realisation of ScAI objectives."

In the coming years, ScAI is hoping to hire at least 20 core faculty members with assistance from external partners. In a press release by IIT, Anant Yardi highlighted the role played by artificial intelligence technologies in "driving global transformations" while "playing a pivotal role in industrial, social and environmental change."