India opens global AI summit in New Delhi

16 Feb 2026 09:51

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India opens global AI summit in New Delhi

Source: Hindustan Times

India is hosting a major global artificial intelligence summit in New Delhi this week, as world leaders, policymakers and technology executives gather to debate the promises and risks of rapidly advancing AI systems.

The five-day AI Impact Summit, which opened Monday, comes at a time when soaring demand for generative AI has driven significant profits for tech companies, while also intensifying concerns about job displacement, misinformation, environmental strain and child safety, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the summit, which aims to outline a “shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration.” In a post on X, Modi said the event highlights India’s rapid progress in science and technology and demonstrates the capabilities of the country’s youth.

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This year’s gathering marks the fourth major international meeting focused on AI’s challenges and opportunities, following earlier summits in Paris, Seoul and at Britain’s historic code-breaking center in Bletchley Park.

Indian officials describe the New Delhi edition as the largest yet, with an expected 250,000 participants from across the technology ecosystem. Organizers say 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations are attending.

Among high-profile guests are Sam Altman of OpenAI and Sundar Pichai of Google. Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, was expected to attend but reportedly canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.

Modi is also scheduled to hold talks with leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with organizers saying discussions will focus on strengthening global partnerships and shaping India’s role in what they describe as the “AI decade.”

Despite the summit’s ambitious scope, some observers question whether it will produce concrete commitments to regulate powerful AI firms.

Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute and a former AI advisor to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, said previous gatherings have yielded limited progress.

According to Kak, industry pledges made at earlier events have largely consisted of narrow self-regulatory frameworks that allow companies to effectively evaluate their own compliance, rather than being subjected to robust external oversight.

The evolution of the summit’s branding reflects the expanding agenda. The 2023 meeting at Bletchley Park was explicitly labeled the AI Safety Summit, following the global shock sparked by the launch of ChatGPT. In 2024, the AI Action Summit in Paris saw dozens of nations sign a statement supporting regulation to ensure AI systems are “open” and “ethical.”

However, the United States declined to sign that declaration. U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned at the time that excessive regulation could stifle innovation in a transformative sector just as it begins to take off.

The New Delhi summit is organized around three broad themes — “people, progress, planet” — described by organizers as guiding “sutras.”

AI safety remains central to discussions, particularly the risks posed by misinformation and deepfake technology. The ability of generative AI systems to produce convincing synthetic images, audio and video has raised alarms worldwide.

Recent controversy surrounding Grok, the AI tool associated with Elon Musk, underscored these concerns. Critics pointed to the platform’s capacity to generate sexualized images of real individuals, including minors, using simple text prompts, triggering widespread backlash.

Kelly Forbes, director of the AI Asia Pacific Institute, said child safety and digital harms are increasingly prominent in policy debates.

“Child safety and digital harms are also moving up the agenda, particularly as generative AI lowers the barrier to harmful content,” Forbes said, noting that several countries, including Australia, are examining ways to require platforms to address these risks more proactively.

While there is potential for meaningful change, Forbes cautioned that regulatory progress may not keep pace with the rapid evolution of AI technologies.

As the summit unfolds, attention will focus on whether world leaders can move beyond broad principles and voluntary pledges toward more binding frameworks — or whether the event will primarily serve as a platform for dialogue in an industry advancing at unprecedented speed.

News.Az

By Nijat Babayev