India aims to reset AI debate with 1st Global South summit

New Delhi : Unthinkable just a few years ago, when artificial intelligence was a shiny experiment — impressive demos, niche tools, and a buzzword that rarely touched daily life — today it sits at the heart of how jobs are created, services delivered, science conducted and societies governed. As the world grapples with both its promise and its risks, India is stepping into a new role, as not just a user of AI but also as a global agenda-setter, becoming the the first developing country and the first nation from the Global South to convene a global AI summit.Speaking exclusively to TOI , Abhishek Singh, CEO of India AI Mission and AI Impact Summit, believes that this is India’s attempt to pull the global AI debate away from elite labs and corporate boardrooms and anchor it in people, inclusion and real-world outcomes.“This is the first summit of its kind and scale being hosted in the Global South,” said Singh, adding, “AI today is largely controlled by a few countries and a few companies. India wants to bring the perspective of the Global South and ensure that AI is more inclusive and democratised.”India’s case for hosting the summit, Singh said, rests on experience rather than theory. Over the past decade, platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker and telemedicine have shown how digital systems can operate at population scale, delivering services to hundreds of millions. “India has shown its ability to adopt technology for public services,” said Singh, “We want to showcase India’s strength in building AI applications at population scale and also be the voice of the Global South.”The summit comes at a time when govts worldwide are struggling to balance rapid AI innovation with growing concerns over deepfakes, misinformation, bias and misuse. While there is broad agreement that AI should drive economic growth and social good, Singh said translating principles into practice remains uneven.“Every country agrees on two things: AI must be used for larger social good; and harm from AI must be restricted,” he said. “But countries are at very different levels of technological development. That is where regulatory capacity and shared frameworks become important.” India’s approach, he explained, is based on what it calls a ‘techno-legal framework,’ combining legal safeguards with technological tools. Legal provisions require harmful content to be taken down within defined timelines and mandate labelling of AI-generated content, especially where it poses risks to individuals, public order or national security. Alongside this, India is developing tools to detect deepfakes, mitigate bias and create ethical AI certification systems.A major focus of the summit is human capital. As automation reshapes work and threatens traditional livelihoods, the summit aims to push global cooperation on reskilling and workforce transitions, particularly for developing economies facing resource constraints.“AI should not grow only in tech hubs,” Singh said. “We are setting up data labs across the country, centres of excellence in states and smaller cities, and running large-scale skilling and training programmes so that AI reaches tier-2 and tier-3 cities.” Inclusion is another central theme, with India highlighting the role of Indian-language and voicebased AI systems in expanding access. Platforms built on natural language processing and generative AI allow people to access services in their own languages, especially those uncomfortable with English.The summit’s agenda also spans AI-enabled scientific research in healthcare, agriculture and climate, while pushing for openness, reproducibility and shared standards.

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