{"id":296286,"date":"2026-02-22T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296286\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:49:10","slug":"indias-ai-ambitions-hit-limits-at-global-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296286\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s AI ambitions hit limits at global summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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India\u2019s ambition to widen access to AI and play a crucial role in the fast-developing technology fell short this week, as the country continues to struggle to find its place in an industry dominated by the US and China. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government used the country\u2019s hosting of this year\u2019s Global AI Summit to push top AI<\/a> groups, including OpenAI and Google, to open source models for specific social ends, such as healthcare, education and agriculture. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome countries and companies believe that AI is a strategic asset and should therefore be developed confidentially,\u201d Modi said in his address. He added that the technology would \u201conly benefit the world when it is shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call comes as India has struggled<\/a> to become a significant player in the AI arms race. Despite its huge tech talent pool and being home to global IT groups such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, it is not a leader in developing large language models or creating products from the technology\u2019s rollout. <\/p>\n

\"AA robot at the summit \u00a9 Pallava Bagla\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s most populous country wants to make sure that AI decision-making is not restricted to the US and China, as countries of the global south recognise the technology\u2019s transformative power and seek faster adoption. <\/p>\n

But India\u2019s push to widen access and introduce a framework for global AI governance was largely dismissed by Washington and the country\u2019s leading tech companies. <\/p>\n

Michael Kratsios, White House chief of science and technology policy, on Friday told attendees that the US government \u201ctotally\u201d rejected global governance of AI. \u201cWe believe AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Instead India<\/a> managed to secure a voluntary commitment for AI companies to share their data on how the technology is being used and the effectiveness of multilingual models. <\/p>\n

The Global AI summit was also a roadshow for India, as it tries to minimise AI\u2019s threat for its largest white-collar employer, the $300bn IT services sector. The event saw it secure investment pledges worth $227bn, most of it involving the build-out of data centres.<\/p>\n

\"NarendraIndia\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with French President Emmanuel Macron at the summit \u00a9 Seshadri Sukumar\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Reuters<\/p>\n

But the summit was marred by dysfunction, with gridlocked streets and attendees waiting in long queues to enter the venue. It was also hit by several high-profile speakers<\/a> pulling out, including Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. <\/p>\n

Despite big data centre projects being announced, experts warned that India did not yet have the large-scale computing infrastructure needed to become a big player in AI. <\/p>\n

Alphabet\u2019s senior vice-president James Manyika told the FT that the wider access India wants was limited because of the lack of infrastructure, especially in the global south. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has not got enough capacity\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009I think the scale of the capacity of the investments, I think, is something that is going to have to happen everywhere. It\u2019s particularly acute in the global south, so I think there\u2019s work\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fractured geopolitical environment also worked against India\u2019s push for a strong regulatory framework, according to AI experts. <\/p>\n

J Trevor Hughes, chief executive of Boston-based not-for-profit IAPP, said the summit was conducted at an \u201codd moment\u201d because \u201cgeopolitics is changing around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a broad deregulatory mood in the air. So the idea of imposing AI regulation creates an allergic reaction right now in many, and yet, risk management in AI is still a critical thing,\u201d he added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A person who was part of the discussions between India and some of the US tech giants noted that as there was no pressure from the US government for global AI regulation, saying American companies are \u201cfeeling absolutely no need to even agree to a baseline\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"JamesGoogle chief Sundar Pichai, second left, speaks at a Google-branded panel at the summit \u00a9 Raj K Raj\/Hindustan Times\/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The summit showed there were signs that India was making some headway in AI. <\/p>\n

Sarvam AI, one of India\u2019s leading AI start-ups, used the summit to launch its new LLM. The Bengaluru-based group\u2019s model is focused on solving day-to-day concerns, rather than harder problems such as advanced math and complex philosophical questions.<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, India\u2019s IT services sector has belatedly decided to embrace the technology. TCS and Infosys both announced partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic, respectively, to help their clients adopt and integrate the technology. <\/p>\n

The importance of the Indian market to the leading AI groups was also made clear. OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman said the country was the company\u2019s fastest-growing market for Codex, its coding agent that works alongside developers to build software.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But one of the most talked-about moments at the summit came on Thursday, when a group photo of industry and government leaders neatly showed the friction at the heart of the AI industry. <\/p>\n

While everyone in the line followed Modi\u2019s encouragement to clasp their neighbours\u2019 hand in celebration above their heads, two of the industry\u2019s fiercest rivals, Altman and Anthropic\u2019s Dario Amodei, who were standing next to each other, could not bring themselves to do so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Indian business & finance myFT Digest — delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-296286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}