9 hours ago
New club at Anna library to foster engagement with AI
Chennai: In a bid to foster literacy in artificial intelligence (AI) and creativity, the Anna AI Club was inaugurated at Anna Centenary Library on Sunday. The club, which will meet every first and third Sunday of the month, aims to provide a platform for experts and anyone interested in AI to share and discuss ideas, and disseminate information, paving the way for deeper engagement on the subject, chief librarian S Kamatchi told TOI.
"Outcomes of the meeting will be recorded and can be used to recommend policies to the govt as well. As of now, we have collaborated with Tamil Nadu Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (TANCAM) and a private readers' circle, Varungal Padipom, to set up the club. In the future, we will collaborate with several industry experts and organisations working in the space as well," Kamatchi added.
P Shankar, director of Public Libraries, delivered the inaugural address and spoke about the role of AI in reshaping education and making knowledge more accessible to all.
M Shanmugam, secretary to the chief minister, unveiled the official Anna AI Club logo, which was designed by artist Trotsky Marudhu, and expressed hope that the club would develop into a robust initiative in the future.
Civil servant R Balakrishnan spoke about how AI played a crucial role in public speaking, providing instantaneous suggestions and making connections with ancient texts, including Sangam Literature. T Sankara Saravanan, principal of the All India Civil Services Coaching Centre, explained distinct uses of AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok-3, and said that they benefited a range of stakeholders from translators to competitive exam aspirants.
Sauri Rajan, representing TANCAM, spoke about AI's role in bridging language, heritage, and manufacturing, and its potential to unite traditional knowledge with advanced manufacturing technologies.
