Executives from major global artificial intelligence companies and a number of world leaders are participating in an important summit on artificial intelligence hosted by New Delhi, at a time when the country is trying to attract more investment in this sector.
India's status as a key destination for AI companies is growing, with Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, and Amazon announcing a total of around $68 billion in investments in AI and cloud infrastructure through 2030.
Indian officials are highlighting the India AI Impact Summit, which kicked off on Monday, as a space to clearly hear the views of developing countries on the global governance of the AI sector, according to Reuters.
Delhi is the first city in a developing country to host this global event, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter: "The theme of the summit is... benefit for all, happiness for all, reflecting our shared commitment to harnessing artificial intelligence for human-centered development."
CEOs of major companies are scheduled to speak at the summit, including the heads of Alphabet, OpenAI, Reliance India, and Google DeepMind. Modi is also scheduled to speak on Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who is visiting India as part of a broader tour.
India, which has yet to produce a world-leading AI model to rival those of the US or China, is betting that its competitive advantage lies in widespread use rather than in developing core models. This is reflected in the fact that the daily number of ChatGPT users in India is expected to exceed 72 million by the end of 2025, making it the largest user market for OpenAI at present.
However, the rapid adoption of AI also threatens jobs in India's $283 billion IT sector. Jefferies Investment Bank has predicted that call centers will face a decline of up to 50% in revenue by 2030 due to the adoption of AI tools.
More than 250,000 visitors are expected to attend the summit in India, with keynote speakers including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, who will speak on Thursday.