Bhubaneswar: Sambad Group, the largest media house in Odisha, organised the fourth edition of Sambad CEO Conclave-2025 in the capital city here today.

The media group had organised the first edition of the CEO Conclave in 2022. The theme of the fourth edition of the Sambad CEO Conclave was ‘Industries in the age of AI’.

Gracing the occasion as the chief guest, Odisha Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy put emphasis on the positive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for accelerating economic development in the state as well as in the country.

“Odisha has plenty of natural resources. We can call our state as a land of possibilities. Now, Odisha has become the most preferred destination for investors. We should use AI to raise production in different sectors of our economy, enhance the skills of our youths and provide better services to the people,” said the Speaker.

Padhy also urged the industrialists and other stakeholders to leverage the AI for sustainable development, which is very much necessary to fight climate change.

She also highlighted the negative side of the AI by citing incidents in which fake videos of eminent personalities have been made and circulated in social media.    

Industries Minister Sampad Chandra Swain, who graced the occasion as chief speaker, spoke about the proper use of AI for the development of the society. “AI has brought a significant change in many sectors of the economy, including industry, health and others. Now, AI        is being utilized for the maintenance of jet engines, detecting financial frauds in banking sector, improvement in the supply chains and providing better healthcare to people,” said Swain.

The Minister also spoke about the newly-formulated Odisha AI Policy-2025, which aims at making the state a leader in the artificial intelligence sector.  

Speaking at the event, Srinivasan K Swamy, Executive Chairman of RK Swamy Hansa Group, opined that AI will be instrumental in providing much more information to us than search engines like Google.

However, large scale use of AI may put our privacy in danger. Besides, it will create several issues with regard to the intellectual property.

Another Speaker, Abhishek Karnani, the president of the Free Press Journal, stated that AI is likely to bring a significant change to the media sector across the Globe. “We can call this as the second Gutenberg movement. AI is getting better and smarter with each passing day. Some reports are saying that AI will propel the global growth rate to 7 pc,” he said.

Director, Eastern Media Limited Dr Monica Nayyar Patnaik delivered the welcome address. “AI is set to play a key role in the media and entertainment industry in future. We should make proper use of AI to accelerate development while saving our mother Earth. We should devise a strategy to make AI more useful to us. But, AI cannot replace human inventiveness and insight,” she stated.

In her speech, Patnaik cited a few reports to highlight the possible negative impact of AI on employment sector.

“Bill Gates recently said that AI will take over most of the jobs in next 10 years. Another study claimed that the job growth in India will come down from 7.1 per cent to 2 per cent,” she said.  

Patnaik also spoke about the initiatives of the Sambad Group for creating awareness on various issues in the society.

Delivering the concluding remarks, Sambad Group Chairman Soumya Ranjan Patnaik opined that AI can not a be substitute for human intelligence.

“Human being is the creator of many technologies including the AI. So, AI can not be a substitute for human mind. However, it may create certain issues in the employment sector,” he said.

The veteran journalist also urged the industrialists to harness the meritorious students of Odisha for rapid development in the state. “Sambad Group has recently felicitated the students who have excelled in this year’s matriculation and intermediate examinations in Odisha. I have spent the last five weeks with these meritorious students. Most of them want to work in abroad after completing their higher studies. I sincerely urge our industrialists to harness these students for achieving rapid economic progress,” Patnaik said.