India Hosts Global AI Summit, Demands Equitable Voice in AI Governance

New Delhi, India — In a bold strategic move to reshape the global artificial intelligence landscape, India has convened the first-ever Global AI Summit in New Delhi, bringing together policymakers, technologists, and civil society leaders from over 60 nations. The summit, held under the theme "AI for All," is a clear signal that India intends to act as a bridge between the dominant AI powers of the United States and China and the Global South, where access to technology, data sovereignty, and ethical governance remain pressing concerns.

According to The Decoder, India’s leadership is leveraging its demographic heft — with over 1.4 billion people and a rapidly growing digital economy — to demand a seat at the table where AI standards are set. Unlike previous international forums dominated by U.S.-based tech giants and Western regulatory bodies, this summit explicitly prioritizes voices from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and small island developing states. Indian officials have called for a "multilateral AI pact" that ensures equitable access to foundational models, transparent training data sourcing, and protections against algorithmic bias that disproportionately affects marginalized communities.

Simultaneously, the summit unfolds against a backdrop of aggressive expansion by American AI firms. OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the world’s most influential private AI laboratories, have significantly increased their footprint in India over the past 18 months. OpenAI has partnered with Indian startups on localized language models for Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali, while Anthropic has established a research hub in Bangalore focused on AI safety and alignment in multilingual contexts. Both companies have publicly endorsed India’s push for inclusive governance, though critics argue their involvement may dilute the summit’s autonomy by embedding corporate interests into public policy discussions.

Indian Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, stated during the opening address: "The future of AI cannot be written in Silicon Valley alone. If we are to build systems that serve humanity, they must reflect the diversity of humanity." His remarks were met with applause from delegates from Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia, who have long felt excluded from global tech governance.

However, challenges remain. While India has committed to open-source AI benchmarks and public datasets, questions linger about its domestic AI regulations, particularly regarding surveillance applications and data privacy enforcement. Civil society groups have urged the government to ensure that its advocacy for global equity is mirrored in its own policies.

The summit has already produced a preliminary "New Delhi Declaration on AI Equity," signed by 42 nations, calling for: (1) shared access to compute resources for developing economies; (2) mandatory transparency in model training data origins; and (3) the creation of a UN-backed Global AI Oversight Body with rotating representation from non-Western nations.

As the world races toward AGI, India’s initiative may mark a turning point — not in technological innovation, but in democratic legitimacy. Whether this summit catalyzes lasting institutional change or becomes a symbolic gesture remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the era of AI governance dominated by a handful of corporations and Western capitals is being challenged — and New Delhi is leading the charge.