Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will travel to the United States to meet the pioneers of research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and "expand his thoughts" about the subject. He is also likely to speak on the subject, party sources said.

AI are software that can be programmed to learn from their environment and function accordingly. Gandhi will visit Silicon Valley in the US to "expand his thoughts about artificial intelligence", party sources were quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI) as saying.

Sources said Rahul, who returned from a trip to Norway recently, wants India to be a leader in the area. Several countries, including China, have already begun investing in the area to strengthen research in it.

rahul gandhi
Congress vice president Rahul GandhiReuters

A senior Congress leader was quoted by PTI as saying that the idea for Rahul is to return to India with knowledge about the subject and implement it at the policy level in the Congress party's vision documents.

Chairman of Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda, a technology innovator and the man behind the telecom revolution in India, is facilitating Rahul's visit to the US. 

Rahul will also speak at a conference on India At 70: Reflections On The Path Forward at the University of California, Berkeley, on September 11.

During his visit to Norway, Rahul had met leaders in the field of technology.

Meanwhile, Twitterati are tickled pink at the very suggestion that their "Pappuji" — associated so often with lack of intelligence because of his recurring faux pas — was going to the US to speak on AI. 

Here are some of their reactions: 

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