GPAI abbreviated for Global Partnership on AI Summit, a congregation of 29 member nations including the European Union being held at the venue of G-20 Summit, Bharat Mandapam, on Wednesday announced the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration, according to the Union minister of state for information technology (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The declaration agreed to collaboratively develop AI applications in healthcare and agriculture, as well as including the needs of the Global South in development of AI.
Further, the declaration also saw participating nations agree upon using the GPAI platform to create a global framework on AI trust and safety, and make AI solutions and benefits available for all. India also pitched to host a GPAI Global Governance Summit to finalize the proposed framework, in six months.
“29 countries of the GPAI have unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, which promises to position GPAI at the front and center of shaping the future of AI in terms of both innovation and creating collaborative AI between the partner nations. Countries agreed to create applications of AI in healthcare, agriculture, and many other areas that concern all our countries and all of our people.
GPAI will be an inclusive movement that will focus on including countries in the Global South, and make available benefits of AI and AI platforms and solutions to the world including the people of the Global South.” Union Minister for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said.
Following the conclusion of the GPAI Summit on Thursday, the Centre will unveil its official AI policy under the India AI Program on 10 January. Global discussions on the development of AI regulations will further take place at the Korea Safety Summit in mid-2024.
Earlier on Wednesday, in an interview with Mint, Chandrasekhar said that India’s approach towards regulating AI comes as an intersection of enabling innovation, while enforcing guardrails that put checks on AI harm—a concern that India has raised before at November’s UK AI Safety Summit.
“Governments have lagged innovation, and allowed it to go unregulated for many years. As a result, we have big islands of commercial power who are distorting the open nature of the internet, i.e; the Big Tech firms. This time, governments do not want to play catch up like before.
The issue today is that regulating anything on the internet cannot happen in silos, because nearly 88% of harm sees perpetrators to be based in one jurisdiction, victims in a second jurisdiction, and the crime itself happening in a third one. Unless there is a global understanding in all of this, there’s no point in India having a great regulation in AI harm if other nations do not,” Chandrasekhar said in a conference.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that development of AI globally will use “humanitarian and democratic values.”
“AI will have to be made all-inclusive and it will have to imbibe all ideas. The more its journey is inclusive, the better the results. Direction of AI development will depend on human and democratic values. It is up to us to keep a place for emotions along with efficiency, ethics and effectiveness,” Modi said.
GPAI’s 2023 summit in a nutshell
Representatives from 29 countries have unanimously embraced the New Delhi declaration, part of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). The primary focus is on seizing the benefits of AI while effectively addressing potential risks.
The declaration highlights several concerns related to AI, including combatting misinformation and disinformation, addressing unemployment concerns, ensuring transparency and fairness, safeguarding intellectual property, and personal data protection, and preventing threats to human rights and democratic values.
Commitment to Safe and Trustworthy AI
Member countries commit to advancing safe, secure, and trustworthy AI within their regions. This involves exploring and implementing relevant regulations, policies, standards, and various initiatives to ensure responsible AI development and use.
Recognition of Progress and Leadership
Acknowledging Japan’s leadership and the efforts of India and France, the declaration recognises significant progress in strengthening GPAI as a diverse and inclusive initiative. This includes noteworthy achievements related to innovation and collaboration.
Innovation and Collaboration
All countries unanimously adopted the New Delhi declaration, positioning GPAI as a leader in shaping AI. The focus is on boosting innovation and collaboration to increase AI applications in critical areas like healthcare and agriculture.
Ensuring Responsible AI Globally
GPAI pledges collective efforts for the collaborative development of knowledge, skills, infrastructure, policies, risk management frameworks, and governance mechanisms. This aims to use AI technologies responsibly and effectively, especially in low and middle-income countries.
What is India’s role in promoting collaborative AI?
India has played a very integral role in promoting collaborative AI across the world. New Delhi has been a part of several Declaration Summits; even the most recent one in United Kingdom.
The declaration explicitly supports India’s intention to promote collaborative AI for global partnership among GPAI members. This involves supporting projects to ensure fair access to essential AI resources and complying with intellectual property protections and data protection legislation.
Apart from the GPAI India has entered into many strategic partnerships for controlled governance with major players across the world.
India & Germany on AI Initiatives
India partnered with Germany to set up artificial intelligence initiatives focusing on healthcare and sustainability. The initiative is led by the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) and is a joint initiative by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), GoI, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Government of Germany, to facilitate Indo-German research and development.
As part of the collaboration, both the partners have agreed to work together to advance AI-based startups and research. Both the countries will also jointly work to foster a higher degree of application of AI in sustainability and healthcare.
Union Minister for Science & Technology Jitendra Singh, in a meeting held in Berlin on 4 May 2022, alongside the president of DFG (German Research Foundation) Katja Becker, lauded the partnership and remarkable strides both the countries have achieved in the recent past.
US India Artificial Intelligence (USIAI) initiative
With an emphasis on the need to scale up the S&T relationship between India and the United States to solve problems of both countries and overcome barriers to growth – both countries launched the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum’s U.S. India Artificial Intelligence (USIAI) Initiative.
IUSSTF’s USIAI Initiative focuses on AI cooperation in critical areas that are priorities for both countries. USIAI will serve as a platform to discuss opportunities, challenges, and barriers for bilateral AI R&D collaboration, enable AI innovation, help share ideas for developing an AI workforce, and recommend modes and mechanisms for catalysing partnerships.
The initiative aims to provide an opportunity for key stakeholder groups to share experiences, identify new areas of R&D and enable opportunities that would benefit from synergistic activities. Further, the partnership will help in discussion on the emerging AI landscape and address the challenges of developing an AI workforce.
Recently, both countries’ Defence and External Affairs ministers agreed to launch an inaugural Defence Artificial Intelligence Dialogue while expanding joint cyber training and exercises.
