Before Modi-Trump meet, India joins France, China, others against US on need to make AI inclusive, sustainable

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a global framework to govern Artificial Intelligence even as the United States broke ranks with India, France, China and 58 other nations at a summit in Paris on Tuesday arguing that excessive regulations could stifle the growth of the emerging technology.

The AI Action Summit co-chaired by Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris ended with a declaration that underlined the need to keep AI “open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy” and “sustainable for people and the planet”. It also stressed adherence to international frameworks while promoting AI and called for greater collaboration on governing its rise.

The US did not sign the declaration issued on Tuesday, refusing to join other nations in committing to inclusive and sustainable AI. The United Kingdom too followed suit and decided against signing the declaration, which was endorsed by 61 other nations, including India.

“AI is developing at an unprecedented scale and speed. It is being adopted and deployed even faster. There is also deep interdependence across borders. Therefore, there is a need for collective global efforts to establish governance and standards that uphold our shared values, address risks, and build trust,” Modi said in his opening statement at the summit, emphasizing that AI was very different from other technological milestones in human history in terms of impact.

“But governance is not just about managing risks and rivalries. It is also about promoting innovation and deploying it for the global good. So, we must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance,” he said. He underlined that governance was also about ensuring access to AI for all, especially for the Global South. “It is where the capacities are most lacking - be it compute power, talent, data, or the financial resources.”

US Vice President J D Vance, however, warned against over-regulating AI. “Excessive regulation could kill a transformative sector just as it's taking off,” said Vance, who stood in for President Donald Trump at the summit Macron hosted at the Grand Palais in Paris.

“We need international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangling it”, he said, calling other nations to show “optimism rather than trepidation”. He noted that AI was an opportunity for the US and President Donald Trump’s administration would not squander it.

He stressed that “pro-growth AI policies” should be prioritised over safety.

As the summit in Paris on Tuesday brought to the fore the differences between the Trump Administration and other nations, including the US allies in Europe, on the issue of governing the AI, New Delhi chose to join the camp publicly opposed to Washington DC – just days before the prime minister’s proposed meeting with the 47th American president.

Modi landed in Paris on Monday. He will fly to Washington DC on Wednesday.

“Loss of jobs is AI’s most feared disruption. History, however, has shown that work does not disappear due to technology. Its nature changes and new types of jobs are created. We need to invest in skilling and re-skilling our people for an AI-driven future,” Modi said in his opening statement at the summit. This was even endorsed by Vance, arguing that AI would not replace human beings, but enhance productivity.

The summit in Paris was the third conclave of world leaders to discuss AI – after the one in the United Kingdom in 2023 and another in South Korea in 2024.

The prime minister offered to host the next year’s summit on AI in India.

The meeting between the prime minister and the US president at the White House is likely to see New Delhi taking conciliatory approaches in response to Trump’s tariff threats as well as his administration’s blitzkrieg against illegal migration to the US from around the world, including India. But, on the issue of AI governance, New Delhi articulated its position firmly on Tuesday, without aligning its position with that of Washington DC.

“AI must be developed for global good and, for all…Other countries will do what they have to do. We, through our national AI mission, will do what we see as the right thing to do. And, this is not something in which we will necessarily be influenced, or allow ourselves to be influenced, by geopolitics,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told journalists later.