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NEW DELHI (AFP)
A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, amid frenzied demand for generative AI turbocharging profits for many tech companies around the world.
The five-day AI Impact Summit aims to declare a "shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration".
It is the fourth annual gathering addressing the problems and opportunities posed by AI, after previous international meetings in Paris, Seoul, and Britain's wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley.
Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting tens of thousands of visitors from across the sector. That includes 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations, who will rub shoulders with tech CEOs, including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Google's Sundar Pichai.
"The AI Impact Summit will enrich global discourse on diverse aspects of AI, such as innovation, collaboration, responsible use and more," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X.
It is "further proof that our country is progressing rapidly in the field of science and technology," and "shows the capability of our country's youth", added Modi.
At the busy conference site, panels and roundtables were held on topics ranging from how AI can make India's treacherous roads safer, to how South Asian women are engaging with the technology.
The Bletchley gathering in 2023 was called the AI Safety Summit, but the meetings' names have changed as they have grown in size and scope. At last year's AI Action Summit in Paris, dozens of nations signed a statement calling for efforts to regulate AI tech to make it "open" and "ethical".
The United States did not sign, with Vice President JD Vance warning that "excessive regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it's taking off".
The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras". AI safety remains a priority, including the dangers of misinformation such as deepfakes.
Organisers highlight this year's AI summit as the first hosted by a developing country.
"The summit will shape a shared vision for AI that truly serves the many, not just the few," India's IT ministry has said.
Last year India leapt to third place -- overtaking South Korea and Japan -- in an annual global ranking of AI competitiveness calculated by Stanford University researchers.
