Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr | AI Summit: Beyond The Rhetoric & Razzmatazz
India too wants to become an AI power not only to grow its domestic economy but also sell in turn its AI goods and services to other countries, including the United States, China, Europe and the Global South
What marked out the New Delhi Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit held last week is the carnival spirit of the AI Expo, which was held along with the pow-wows of the global tech CEOs and the political leaders of 88 nations. It is natural that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tried to leverage it to project India as a key AI stakeholder, and an aspirational AI superpower. The rhetorical flourishes of the Prime Minister in his inaugural address of the summit are now par for the course.
They are now the necessary part of the Modi discourse though the laboured acronym of MANAV (M: Moral and Ethical Systems; A: Accountable Governance; N: National Sovereignty; A: Accessible and Inclusive; V: Valid and Legitimate) coined for the occasion was indeed cringe-worthy. Perhaps the speech-writers do not have much of a choice because that is the demand of the Prime Minister.
There is global anxiety as to how AI would reshape economies and societies across national borders, and therefore the implicit demand that it should be used for the benefit of all people in all countries. But the harsh reality is that there is acute inequality in terms of who is making the technological breakthroughs in developing AI. Though much is happening in Europe and in India, the real AI powers are the United States and China. Between the two, the US has the technological advantage, which may not last too long because China is putting in resources and efforts to close the gap. If the United States has the technological edge, China is sitting on crucial deposits of rare earth elements needed to make the chips that are the building blocks of advanced AI. India and European countries would want to overtake the US and China in getting to the AI heights, and they will make the necessary efforts.
There are smaller countries in Africa and Latin America who have a critical role to play because of the deposits of rare earths they have. The supply chains then become crucial and naturally strategic.
This will indeed form the next round of global competition and the struggle for supremacy. It is against this background of unflattering global reality that the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi should be measured. In plain terms, the majority of the countries, which are labelled Global South, are the AI have-nots. India is in a peculiar situation. It would not want to consider itself as an AI have-not, and justifiably so. But it is not yet the AI power which can dictate terms. So, it makes strategic sense for India to be the flag-bearer of the Global South.
The clause that matters most in the Delhi declaration is that of the “Trusted AI Commons”. It reads: “We recognise the development of the voluntary and non-binding Trusted AI Commons, a collaborative platform consolidating technical resources, tools, benchmarks and best practices that all can access and adapt to their contexts; as well as its voluntary guidance note.” There are more than enough ambiguities and contradictions in the paragraph as well as in the rest of the declaration, but that is inevitable.
The catch in the AI, both for those at the commanding heights of the technology like the US and China, and the rest is that they are gridlocked in the iron law of demand and supply. Those who have the AI prowess want to use it for economic gain. They cannot be content with their breakthroughs. They will need to sell their AI products. The reason that Google wants to set up an AI data generating centre in Visakhapatnam is not free market goodwill as much as the market for the AI data that Google wants to sell to millions of consumers in the ever-growing Indian market.
India too wants to become an AI power not only to grow its domestic economy but also sell in turn its AI goods and services to other countries, including the United States, China, Europe and the Global South. From the first industrial revolution, the aim of technology is to expand markets. Though India has a relatively vast consumer base, it cannot be content with it. It needs to export, and exports have little to do with altruism.
An ambiguous aspect of AI is that of collaborating and sharing scientific research across national borders. It is an accepted article of faith of modern science that it is global in nature, and its discoveries and breakthroughs are universal. Though it remains an uncontested entity in the intellectual realm, it becomes an issue of competition when it is translated into technology-generated goods and services. Proprietary claims follow. What had been hinted at in the earlier declarations was spelt out explicitly in the Delhi declaration: “We recognise that removing structural barriers to and increasing availability of AI research infrastructure can promote the use of AI in scientific research and development across countries.” In practice, there is much international collaboration among scientists and research institutions across countries, and this is facilitated by the national governments. Governments can of course restrict these collaborations whenever they want and cite national security reasons for it. Narendra Modi’s “National Sovereignty” in MORAL will hover like the proverbial Sword of Damocles in scientific and AI collaboration.
Summits and their declarations have their uses. They break ice and sometimes barriers. But they cannot be taken as reliable signposts of what is and what can be done. The Narendra Modi government can use the AI Impact Summit as a political trophy. Indians will have to think and decide on the challenges of AI on their own, individually and collectively. The first AI summit was about safety because it has raised the spectre that AI will now control human beings, and the “Automaton” will be the new Great Dictator. By the time of the New Delhi summit, AI was being viewed with enthusiasm and glee as a new toy that promises economic prosperity. It is this prospect of economic plenty that seems to have captivated Prime Minister Modi more than anything else. He sees it as the silver bullet to make India the developed country even before 2047. AI will lose much of its novelty and attraction and it will become another technological tool like the computer and the Internet. The challenges of life and livelihoods will exist much beyond AI, and they will need solutions beyond AI.