The five-day ‘India AI Impact’ global summit, discussing the possibilities, influence, and innovations of artificial intelligence, has begun in the national capital. While AI summits have previously been held in the UK, South Korea, and France, this is the first such gathering in a developing country. The conference, organised around the themes of people, planet, and progress, will also discuss AI safety, skill development, and the democratisation of technology.
While ordinary people use AI systems to create images and resolve queries, at the global level it is being leveraged for far-reaching creative activities such as ensuring security, simplifying complex surgeries, managing transportation systems, and advancing agricultural development. India being one of the largest markets suitable for AI-driven ideas and industries, the world is closely watching this summit with keen interest. The presence of more than twenty world leaders—including French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan—as well as technology leaders such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Microsoft President Brad Smith, bears testimony to this significance. The event, featuring 600 startups and expecting 250,000 visitors, will include over 500 sessions and more than 3,000 speakers. With participation from 100 countries and the presence of over 100 global CEOs, the summit is being hailed by Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as a historic breakthrough. One can hope that it lives up to this expectation.
With the AI summit taking place in India, a report related to the country gains particular significance. The report, released by the digital rights organisation Internet Freedom Foundation in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Organized Hate in the United States, highlights one of the most inhumane and destructive uses of AI technology: its deployment by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the government, to justify attacks on minorities and to present hate campaigns in a seemingly credible manner. The report specifically references the controversial ‘shooting’ video from Assam. It also points to the use of AI as a tool for spreading hate in places such as Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka.
Since AI platforms have been developed in Western countries, a common argument of justification is that this technology has limitations in recognising caste, religion, and regional biases in the Indian context. However, most social media platforms exercise excessive discretion by removing content posted in regional languages, including Malayalam, that criticises governments or genocidal forces, claiming it does not “conform to our community standards”. The aforementioned shooting video was removed only after it had circulated widely and generated significant criticism and controversy worldwide. Hundreds of images and short videos, created using AI platforms in ways that demean and defame minority communities, are being spread by Sangh-affiliated IT cells and “WhatsApp universities,” reaching groups ranging from family circles to alumni networks. They are capable of emotionally influencing voters and inciting communities along communal lines. The torrent of such hate is the result of social media and AI platforms, which loudly proclaim the high values and rules they uphold, bending their own guidelines in practice.
When an AI-generated video depicting a state chief minister of the world’s largest democracy, described by the Prime Minister as the “mother of democracy,” shooting at Muslim youth is shared through the party’s official social media account, how deep do the bullets of hate really run?
As in all other fields, we hope to see Indian youth advancing confidently in the realm of artificial intelligence. However, as long as the technology, which should serve human progress and world peace, is being used to spread hate and incite conflicts, the nation cannot take pride in the achievements it claims to have made. Even as India prepares to become the world’s largest AI market, it does not have a strong AI law sufficient to prevent misuse and its repercussions. Beyond highlighting the benefits of technology, global summits like these have a responsibility to ensure that it does not become a tool for marginalising the vulnerable and oppressed communities.