As he underlined the positive potential of artificial intelligence and the unprecedented scale and speed of its development, PM Modi on Tuesday called for collective global efforts to establish governance and standards that uphold shared values, address risks, and build trust, given a deep inter-dependence across borders in the use of the technology.
Addressing the AI Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, which he co-chaired with French President Emmanuel Macron, Modi said governance is not just about managing risks and rivalries but also about promoting innovation, and deploying it for the global good. He sought pooling together of resources and talent to develop open-source systems that enhance trust and transparency.
“So, we must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance,” the PM said, adding that AI is very different from other technology milestones in human history. He announced that India will host the next AI summit.
While India, Japan, China and Australia were among the 60-odd signatories, US and UK did not endorse the joint communique, again highlighting differences in approach.
PM bats for AI access to Global South
Vice-President J D Vance, who led the US delegation, said AI could be strangled by excessive regulation. In his address, the PM called for global AI partnership to be more inclusive of Global South and its priorities, concerns and needs even as he welcomed the decision to set up an AI Foundation and endorsed a leaders’ declaration that focused on promoting inclusivity, sustainability, accessibility and ethics in the technology’s uses.
“Governance is also about ensuring access to all, especially in Global South. It is where the capacities are most lacking – be it compute power, talent, data, or financial resources,” said Modi, as he spoke about the need to address biases as AI reshapes society, economy and security and even writes the codes for humanity in this century.
Modi said AI can help transform millions of lives by improving health, education and agriculture. “We must build quality datasets free from biases. We must democratise technology and create people-centric applications. We must address concerns related to cybersecurity, disinformation, and deepfakes. And we must also ensure that technology is rooted in local ecosystems for it to be effective and useful,” he said.
While talking about India’s own development of AI applications for public good, the PM said that the world is at the dawn of the AI age that will shape the course of humanity.
“Some people worry about machines becoming superior in intelligence to humans. But no one holds the key to our collective future and shared destiny other than us humans. That sense of responsibility must guide us,” he said.
Looking to allay fears of job losses that AI might cause, the PM said history has shown that work does not disappear due to technology and there’s a need to invest in skilling and re-skilling our people for an AI-driven future. Modi called for democratising technology and its people-centric applications so that achieving Sustainable Development Goals becomes a reality, according to a press statement. Highlighting India’s success in building a digital public infrastructure for its 1.4 billion citizens based on open and accessible technology, Modi noted that India, considering its diversity, was building its own large language model for AI. “He underlined that India was ready to share its experience to ensure that the benefits of AI reach everyone,” said the statement.
According to Modi, AI models must be efficient and sustainable in size, data needs and resource requirements. “The human brain manages to compose poetry and design spaceships using less power than most lightbulbs,” he said.