India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has said that AI Governance is all about ensuring access to all, especially for countries in the global south.
These include countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Speaking during the France AI Action Summit in Paris, PM Modi said these countries are where the capabilities of AI are most likely, be it compute power, talent, data or financial resources.
“Governance is not just about managing risks and rivalries, it is also about promoting innovation and deploying it for the global good,” he said.
“We must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance.”
Modi said AI is developing at an unprecedented scale and speed and being adapted and deployed even faster further noting that there is also a deep interdependence across borders.
“Therefore, there is a need for collective global efforts to establish governance and standards that recognise our shared values, address risks and build trust,” he continued.
PM Modi further stated that AI can help transform millions of lives by improving health, education, agriculture and so much more as well as help create a world in which the journey towards sustainable development goals becomes easier and faster.
To do this, he said, we must pull together resources and talent and develop open-source systems that enhance trust and transparency.
Modi added that we must also build quality data sets free from biases and democratise tech as well as create people-centric applications.
“We must address concerns related to cybersecurity, disinformation and deepfakes. We must also ensure that tech is rooted in local ecosystems for it to be effective and useful,” PM Modi said.
Further, the loss of jobs, Modi said, is AI’s biggest disruption but history has shown work does not disappear due to technology rather its nature changes and new types of jobs are created.
“There is also a need to invest in skilling and reskilling our people for an AI-driven future,” he said.
Speaking on AI and Green Energy, PM Modi said that there is no doubt that the high energy intensity of AI needs to be looked into noting that this involves green power to fuel its future.
“India and France have worked together for years through initiatives like the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to harness the power of the sun,” he continued.
“As we advance our partnership to AI, it is a natural progression from sustainability to innovation to shape a smarter and responsible future.”
Launched in 2015 at the Paris Climate Conference, ISA was created to help developing countries transition away from fossil fuels.
The ISA’s goal is to connect 733 million people worldwide who currently don’t have access to electricity to renewable energy sources.
On sustainability, PM Modi further said that sustainable AI does not only mean using clean energy but that AI models must be efficient and sustainable in size, data, needs and resource requirements.
“After all, the human brain manages to compose poetry and design spaceships using less power than most light bulbs,” he said.
Noting successes, PM Modi said that India has successfully built a digital public infrastructure for over 1.4 billion people at a very low cost.
It is built around an open and accessible network and has regulations and a wide range of applications to modernise India’s economy, reform governance and transform the lives of its citizens.
India, he added, has also unlocked the power of data through data empowerment and protection architecture and has also made digital commerce democratic and accessible to all.
This reason, he added, is the foundation of the India National AI mission.
“During our G20 presidency, we built a consensus on harnessing AI responsibly for good and for all,” Modi said.
“Today, AI leads in adoption and techno-legal solutions on data privacy. We are developing AI apps for public good and have one of the world’s largest AI talent pools.”
Modi noted that India is building its own LLM considering their diversity and has a unique public-private partnership model for pulling resources like compute power which are made available to India’s startups at affordable costs.
“India is ready to share its experience and expertise to ensure the AI future is for good and for all,” he said.
“We are at the dawn of the AI age that will save the human cause. 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.”
PM Modi thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for hosting the AI Action Summit and for inviting him to co-chair.
While at it, he said that even though AI poses positive potential which is absolutely amazing, there are many vices that we need to think carefully about.
“AI is already reshaping our politics, economies, securities and even our society. It is writing the code for humanity in this century but it is very different from other tech milestones in human history,” Modi said.
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