PM Modi pushes for global AI governance at Paris summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the need for collective global efforts to establish a governance architecture and standards for artificial intelligence (AI) during Paris AI Action Summit. He co-chaired the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Modi highlighted India’s expertise in AI, citing its large talent pool and efforts to build AI applications for global good. “India is ready to share its experience and expertise to ensure that the AI future is for good, and for all,” he said, noting that India was building its own large language model considering its diversity.

Pitching for India’s AI landscape as a unique space with a public-private partnership model for pooling resources like compute power, PM said in India resources are made available to start-ups and researchers at an affordable cost.

The Prime Minister, while stressing the emergence of AI as a tool that was “writing the code for humanity and progressing at an unprecedented pace” noted that the key to humanity’s collective future and shared destiny was in the hands of humans themselves.

The PM was addressing fears that technology can somehow become more intelligent than the human mind.

Earlier in his address, Modi said given a deep inter-dependence across borders, “there is a need for collective global efforts to establish governance and standards, that uphold our shared values, address risks, and build trust”.

Modi also spoke for the Global South when he flagged that governance was

not just about managing risks and rivalries but also promoting innovation and deploying it for the global good.

“So, we must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance. Governance is also about ensuring access to all, especially in the Global South. It is where the capacities are most lacking — be it compute power, talent, data, or financial resources,” he said, referring to how during its G20 presidency, India built a consensus on “harnessing AI responsibly, for good, and for all”.

Pitching India as the leader in AI adoption, and techno-legal solutions on data privacy, PM flagged concerns around AI and the need to address those.

“AI can help transform millions of lives by improving health, education, agriculture and so much more...but to do this, we must pool together resources and talent. We must develop open-source systems that enhance trust and transparency. We must build quality data sets, free from biases. We must democratise technology and create people-centric applications. We must address concerns related to cyber security, disinformation, and deep fakes. And, we must also ensure that technology is rooted in local ecosystems for it to be effective and useful,” said the Prime Minister.

He said India has successfully built a digital public infrastructure for over 1.4 billion people at a very low cost.