India hosts a high-stakes AI summit, drawing 20 leaders and top tech CEOs

India Hosts Global AI Summit Amid Technological Transformation

India is hosting the AI Impact Summit this week, bringing together heads of state, senior officials, and tech executives to New Delhi for a five-day gathering that underscores artificial intelligence’s growing global importance. The event marks the first such summit held in the Global South, shifting focus from previous venues in France, the UK, and South Korea.

The summit arrives at a critical moment as AI rapidly transforms economies, reshapes labor markets, and raises pressing questions around regulation, security, and ethics. From generative AI tools producing text and images to advanced systems used in defense, healthcare, and climate modeling, artificial intelligence has become a central focus for governments and corporations worldwide.

As the world’s most populous nation and one of the fastest-growing digital markets, India sees the summit as an opportunity to position itself as a bridge between advanced economies and developing nations. Indian officials highlight the country’s experience in building large-scale digital public infrastructure, including digital identity and payment platforms, as a model for deploying AI at scale while keeping costs affordable.

“The goal is clear: AI should be used for shaping humanity, inclusive growth and a sustainable future,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister for Electronics and Information Technology.

The event, which begins Monday, will host an impressive roster of global leaders and tech executives. Twenty heads of state and government are expected to attend, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a session on Thursday.

Tech industry luminaries will also be present, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and AMI Labs Executive Chairman Yann LeCun.

Indian business leaders view the summit as recognition of the country’s growing importance in the global tech landscape. “As India continues on the journey to become a developed nation by 2047, AI has a critical role to play in strengthening large scale systems, from energy and manufacturing to public infrastructure,” said Sumant Sinha, CEO of the NASDAQ-listed clean energy company ReNew.

Like previous editions, the India AI Impact Summit is not expected to produce binding agreements. Instead, it may conclude with a non-binding declaration on AI development goals. The event’s format has evolved significantly since the first meeting in November 2023, which took place at a former code-breaking facility north of London and focused primarily on AI safety concerns.

Last year’s Paris AI Action Summit was marked by tension when U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned against “excessive regulation” that could impede the rapidly growing AI industry, pushing back against European regulatory efforts.

Ahead of the India meeting, a panel of experts released their second annual safety report addressing risks posed by advanced AI systems, including potential misuse, malfunctions, and systemic vulnerabilities. Yoshua Bengio, a prominent scientist known as one of the “Godfathers of AI” who led the study, emphasized the importance of this work: “The whole point of this report is to build an international consensus on the state of the science regarding the emerging risks of AI. It’s really important that the world will continue to have a strong independent scientific evaluation of the risks.”

AI governance efforts continue in other forums as well, including at the United Nations, which last year established two key bodies on AI—a global forum and an independent scientific panel of experts.

The summit also addresses concerns about AI’s impact on employment, particularly in technology sectors. Experts in India point to reskilling as a critical strategy to mitigate potential job losses.

“There is a lot of genuine concern around this theme, and I don’t want to underestimate this impact. But, from an Indian lens, emphasis is on re-skilling programs and as AI becomes much more mainstream, you will also see newer job roles coming up,” said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at Nasscom, a prominent organization representing India’s technology industry.

For many young Indians, AI tools are already transforming daily work. Anirudh Singh, a 22-year-old pursuing a master’s in social work at Delhi University, noted that AI simplifies his academic projects: “I think AI is just reducing the tedious work that students generally had to do.”

The New Delhi summit represents a significant milestone in global AI governance discussions, highlighting both the technology’s transformative potential and the complex challenges it presents for policymakers, businesses, and citizens worldwide.