Weeding out corruption on the back of artificial intelligence backed technology, the Maharashtra state transport department while giving more impetus to the Centre’s Digital India programme has announced to launch an artificial intelligence-based facial recognition system from August.
The move is likely to check the proxy candidates appearing for the online learners’ licence test in the state. “The online examination started last month and has become popular. But there is information about people using proxy candidates to get the learners’ licences that are valid for six months. Keeping this in mind, the transport department has been looking for an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that can stop such malpractices,” a transport department official said.
The state transport commissioner Avinash Dhakne had last month said AI-based systems were being tested by the National Informatics Centre.
Under the new proposed system, the Aadhaar card is linked with the application of a candidate. Once a candidate applies for the online test, he/she will get a one time password (OTP) to unlock the examination.
A system is being developed wherein the applicant’s photograph will be first authenticated by comparing it with the photograph on the Aadhaar card before the candidate starts writing the answers. The test will only start for a candidate if her or his photograph matches at least 90% with the one on the Aadhaar card.
According to top government sources, several systems, including verification of IP addresses to ascertain whether many people were appearing for the test through a single system (computer), were tested.
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With the learner licence test going completely online and bringing in transparency, transport experts and union leaders have called out the practice of conducting the final driving test on the Regional Transport Office (RTO) track as a farce.