India's AI moment gets real as celebrities and robots share space

PM inaugurates 5-day summit; Vaishnaw says India in talks with over 30 countries for a pact to curb AI misuse

Bharat Mandapam, the 125-acre prime convention arena in New Delhi, transformed into the most sought-after address as the AI Impact Summit 2026 kicked off in New Delhi on Monday. The Day One of the fourth edition of the artificial intelligence summit — centred around the Global South — witnessed heads of states, industry captains, celebrities and thought leaders converging here to witness India’s seat on the AI hightable.    

 

The highlight of the day was the inauguration of the AI Impact Expo by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the evening, even as thousands of visitors made their way to the destination hours earlier to check out the various aspects of AI, which promises to be a gamechanger.        

 

This is the biggest congregation of world leaders in India, after the G20 Summit in September 2023, turning the capital city into a fortress amid intense security drills all across. The next four days, as the summit progresses, could lead to many marquee agreements and business deals, positioning India in a new pecking order.      

 

Modi, who arrived at the expo centre on Monday evening, visited the booths of many startups and companies showcasing the latest innovations in AI. Sarvam — a startup selected under the ~10,372 crore India AI Mission to build India’s first indigenous large language model (LLM) — was one of the first booths the PM visited. 

 

HCLTech, Reliance Jio, as well as startups including BharatGen, Shodh AI, Gnani.AI, Soket, Miko, Addverb, and Wadhwani AI were among the other stops for the PM as men and women tried to keep pace with robotic splendour.

 

The five-day summit, which saw serpentine queues for entry into the venue in the morning and the afternoon, will see global AI leaders such as Alphabet and Google’s chief executive officer, Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Nobel laureate and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, and Gates Foundation chairperson Bill Gates, among others.

 

Setting the mood for the much awaited AI Summit, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in the morning that India was in talks with more than 30 countries to reach an agreement on the technical and legal solutions needed to curb the misuse of AI in the media space. He was speaking at a fireside chat with Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association.

 

Reiterating the government’s stand on deepfakes, Vaishnaw said that it was the responsibility of social media and internet intermediaries, AI model makers and creators to ensure that AI tools are not misused.

 

“It is striking at the root of these institutions and trust. The social media platforms, the AI models and creators, all of us will have to take the responsibility in making sure that new technology strengthens the trust rather than belittling it and creating a break-up of institutions without a break-up,” Vaishnaw said.

 

Also at the venue, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said that while AI can improve learning standards for students and teachers, it must not be treated as a shortcut that weakens critical thinking.

 

“It's not only about access to technology, now we have to go deeper and beyond access and make sure we have scalable solutions in every aspect... We are rightly positioned for that,” Prasada said.

 

Speaking at the event, the IT Ministry Secretary S Krishnan said that Micron, the first project approved by the government under the Rs 76,000-crore India Semiconductor Mission, will begin commercial production at its Gujarat unit by the end of this month.

 

The company, he said, will produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which are crucial for AI applications.