GPAI summit 2023: Talks over AI declaration on, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (IT) Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Monday that India is negotiating a declaration document to be signed by member countries at the upcoming Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).

The event will be held at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi from December 12-14.

“We are negotiating a declaration document, which we hope will be able to arrive at some consensus,” said the minister.

“Today, the world’s thinking on artificial intelligence (AI) is converging. People understand the dangers of AI, the potential, and the benefits that could come out of AI. The entire world also wants to put certain guardrails. There is more or less convergence on how AI should be treated going forward. So, we will be aiming at a statement that is agreed upon by everybody,” he added.

While speaking at the curtain raiser media briefing, Vaishnaw informed that the three-day summit will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will host delegates and dignitaries from 28 member countries, the European Union (EU), and some visitor countries.

Talking about the summit, Vaishnaw said, “This (GPAI) will be a very large congregation attended by startups, policymakers, academia, and others.”

“The event will have many technical sessions on how to make AI more responsible, convergence on AI use, and how to have properly balanced regulations around AI,” he added.

India was chosen as the Chair of GPAI 2023 by a two-thirds majority vote during last year’s summit held in Tokyo, Vaishnaw said.

GPAI at Delhi follows the UK AI Summit at Bletchley Park, which was attended by Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

GPAI discussions hold significance as a few days back the EU became the first region to come out with a clear set of rules for the use of AI. After 36 hours of discussion, the EU’s three branches — the Parliament, Council, and Commission — agreed on a provisional deal to regulate AI.

The EU Parliament will vote on the rules early next year, and the rules will come into effect by 2025. With this, the EU may be the first region ever to come out with rules when the US, the UK, and China have been battling to come up with their take to put guardrails around AI.

GPAI is a grouping of 25 member countries, including the US, the UK, the EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. India joined the alliance in 2020 as a founding member.