AI Action Summit adds yet another aspect to growing India-France strategic partnership: FS

Paris, Feb 11 (PTI) The ongoing AI Action Summit has added yet another aspect to the “growing India-France strategic partnership”, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said here on Tuesday.

The plenary session of the mega event was co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

At a briefing held here on the prime minister’s visit to France, Misri shared details about his broader engagements and the expected deliverables from the summit.

Asked if there was a race among countries and business enterprises in the AI domain, the foreign secretary said, “Our perspective is more in terms of outcomes and objectives and those objectives are to increase global public good through the development of AI.” “Other countries will do what they have to do. We, through our National AI Mission, will do what we see is the right thing to do. And, this is not something in which we will necessarily be influenced or allow ourselves to be influenced by geopolitics,” he said.

India’s emphasis is going to be on outcomes and deliver “the greatest good for the greatest number of people”, he asserted.

In his opening remarks at the briefing, the foreign secretary said, “The (AI Action) summit adds yet another aspect to growing India-France strategic partnership.” He further said that in keeping with the India-France track record of cooperation in a number of areas, such as space, defence, nuclear and critical technologies, “it is only natural that we cooperate in the AI sphere as well”.

With India being the co-chair of the key summit, the foreign secretary also indicated that there would be bilateral deliverables as well on the AI front.

In his address at the summit, Modi made a strong case for collective efforts to establish a global framework for artificial intelligence (AI) based on open source which enhances trust, transparency and is free from biases.

Modi said that AI is changing the polity, economy, security and society and is “writing the code for humanity in this century”.

“We are at the dawn of the AI age that will shape the course of humanity,” he said.

“Some people worry about machines becoming superior in intelligence to humans. But, no one holds the key to our collective future and shared destiny other than us humans. That sense of responsibility must guide us,” the prime minister added.

Modi, who is on a three-day visit to France starting Monday, will also hold bilateral talks with President Macron and address business leaders.

Last year, India and France celebrated the 25th anniversary of their strategic partnership, covering an entire gamut of issues from defence and security, civil nuclear matters, space to trade, economy and commerce.

Modi held a bilateral meeting with Estonia President Alar Karis on the sidelines of the AI Action Summit in Paris, Misri said.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders and both expressed satisfaction at the growing India-Estonia cooperation in several fields, he added.

The Paris summit was the third in the series on the theme of AI in the last couple of years, the first being held in the UK in 2023, followed by another summit in Seoul in South Korea.

In view of Modi’s ongoing visit to France, Misri was asked if India was focussing on Europe, and he said focus on Europe is “right”.

The European Union is a big economic entity and many countries in it are also important to India, he said.

Whether it is trade, business, people-to-people ties and development cooperation, it is an important relationship with the EU, he underlined.

“And, it is good that attention is being paid from our side on these relations,” the foreign secretary said, adding, it will continue in future too.

S Krishnan, Secretary, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), also addressed the media.

The emphasis on this summit has been on possible opportunities for innovation that AI presents than the harms or what the negative outcomes could be, he said.

Krishnan said India has also supported the establishment of the AI foundation.

“On the whole, we believe the summit represents very positive outcomes, not just for India and the Global South, but for the world as a whole. We believe it represents a re-balancing of the approach towards AI, and therefore time is right for India, as the prime minister offered, and the offer was accepted that the next AI summit will be hosted in India later this year,” the senior official said.

This will follow up on the fact that in 2023, India was the chair of the Global Partnership in Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), he added.

An informal ministerial gathering of GPAI also took place on the sidelines of the summit, where broadly again similar goals were emphasised, Krishnan said, adding India has emphasised that GPAI membership needs to be expanded.

On the next AI summit, proposed to be held in India, he said working with the Ministry of External Affairs, “we will invite other countries as well”.

The countries of Global South will “get priority” and more countries will be represented from Asia, Africa and Latin America regions, he added.

On a question on regulation and technology, the MeitY secretary said as far as regulation is concerned, certain aspects of it are “already addressed under existing laws (in India)”.

The existing laws are “sufficient to address” deep fake in misrepresentation, he said.

Asked about India’s role in hosting the Paris summit, Krishnan said the role of India has been “significant”.

“We have engaged right from the month of May in all of the five working groups,” he said. PTI KND GSP GSP

Source: PTI