India, France to ensure standards governing AI reflect democratic values

India and France on Wednesday said they share the importance to build a framework to ensure conception, design and development of AI for the public interest and is respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

In a joint declaration issued a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chaired the AI Action Summit along with President Emmanual Macron, the two sides also said that in view of the upcoming India-France Year of Innovation in 2026, the two nations will take part in the development of this emerging technology. 

Acknowledging the progress in developing artificial intelligence, India and France will seek to ensure that norms and standards governing their use reflect democratic values, and harness the potential of artificial intelligence for human development and common good, the 'India-France Declaration on Artificial Intelligence' said. 

India and France recalled their joint commitment to promote safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems to accelerate progress towards the full realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and also their efforts to call upon the international community to foster an enabling environment for international cooperation on artificial intelligence capacity-building.

The two countries emphasised that international law, in particular the Charter of the United Nations, as well as human rights and fundamental freedoms, must be respected.

The two sides recalled the 2023 Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of digital technologies in the joint declaration.

India and France share the importance to build a framework to ensure conception, design and development of AI for the public interest, respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in compliance with applicable legal frameworks regarding intellectual property rights, privacy and use of personal data," it said.

It also underlined that India and France share the importance of building an efficient and inclusive governance framework for the development of a safe, open, secure, trustworthy, responsible and ethical AI use and solutions, and building upon the AI Action Summit co-chaired by France and India in Paris.

In his address at the plenary session of the summit, attended by the who's who of the world and top business leaders, Modi made a strong case for collective efforts to establish a global framework for artificial intelligence (AI) based on open source which enhances trust, transparency and is free from biases.

Modi said that AI is changing the polity, economy, security and society and is writing the code for humanity in this century.

We are at the dawn of the AI age that will shape the course of humanity, he said.