Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while interacting with entrepreneurs in Washington on Wednesday said that he knew that his phone was being tapped at one point. Gandhi spent the first half of Wednesday with Silicon Valley-based startup entrepreneurs who are known for their path-breaking work in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technologies. While sitting in the front row of the Plug and Play auditorium with Indian Overseas Congress chairperson Sam Pitroda and other key aides, he was captivated by the ongoing panel discussions on AI, Big Data, Machine Learning and their implications on mankind and on issues like governance, social welfare, disinformation, and misinformation, reported news agency PTI.
Plug and Play Tech Centre which is based out of California's Sunnyvale is one of the biggest incubators of startups. As per its CEO and Founder Saeed Amidi, more than 50 per cent of the startup founders at Plug and Play have been Indians or Indian Americans. Amidi while talking to PTI said that Gandhi showed a deep understanding of the IT sector and his knowledge of the latest cutting-edge technologies is quite impressive. While talking in a fireside chat with Amidi and the Founder of FixNix startup, Shaun Shankaran, the Congress leader attempted to link all technologies with their impact on the common man in the remote villages of India.
While sharing his personal experience of drone tech and its regulation which faces 'massive bureaucratic hurdles', he said, "If you want to spread any technology in India, you have to have a system where power is relatively decentralized."
He joked about the Pegasus spyware issue and said that he is not worried about it as at one point in time he said that he knew his phone is being tapped.
Satirically, he said, "Hello Mr Modi" on his iPhone. He said, "I presume my iPhone is being tapped. You need to establish rules with regard to the privacy of data information as a nation and also as an individual. If a nation-state decides that they want to tap your phone, no one can stop you. This is my sense." He further said, "If the nation is interested in tapping the phone, then this is not a battle worth fighting. I think whatever I do and work, is available to the government."
Gandhi was hosted by Shankaran for the AI event at Plug and Play who expressed his admiration for Gandhi's grasp of the most recent technological advancements.