GPAI adopts New Delhi declaration on artificial intelligence

New Delhi: The Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), under India’s presidency, adopted the New Delhi declaration on AI on Wednesday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said at a media briefing in the capital on the sidelines of the GPAI summit.

“The declaration promises to position GPAI at the front and centre of shaping AI in terms of both innovation and creating collaborative AI between the partner nations and increasing applications of AI in healthcare, agriculture and other areas that concern our countries and people,” he said. “GPAI will also be in the front and centre of shaping the future of governance and lead the conversation about safe and trusted AI,” he added.

The declaration was signed after a four-hour discussion between India and representatives for member countries including the UK, France and Japan. All 29 countries that are part of the GPAI unanimously agreed to the declaration that has been penned under three broad themes: collaboration, governance and inclusivity.

Member countries will look to collaborate on both developing platforms and applications based on AI and improving academic resources to build a seamless pipeline of AI talent.

Member nations will also discuss and work out governance frameworks to ensure safety and trust within the AI ecosystem so that the technology can be explored in a secure and innovative manner with risk mitigation mechanisms in place.

The declaration aims to foster inclusivity so that countries outside of the GPAI’s purview, especially those in the global south, can also reap the benefits of AI. Member countries have also agreed to include such nations within GPAI, with Senegal made part of the partnership’s steering committee.

The declaration is yet to be made publicly available and could not be accessed by DH at the time of publication.

On the topic of forming a regulatory framework for the emerging technology, the minister said countries will have to move fast to mitigate risks posed by it.

“We have to move in broadly two directions, one is deploying collaborative work on AI between like-minded countries and exploiting AI for the common good of our people. At the same time, we have to deal with the safety and trust issues that it poses. GPAI should play a very important role in establishing what can be a global understanding on how to deal with those issues and make safe and trusted AI the norm,” the minister further asserted.

Member countries over the next few months will work together through a task force or smaller grouping to lay out the broad principles and guardrails required to regulate AI, post which another mid-term GPAI sitting may take place to discuss these further.