India has a central role to play in shaping AI: Anthropic CEO Amodei

At the India AI Impact Summit, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says India will shape AI's global trajectory, balancing transformative economic gains with risks of misuse and displacement

India will have a central role in shaping how artificial intelligence (AI) evolves — from unlocking economic growth to managing emerging risks, said Dario Amodei, chief executive officer and cofounder of Anthropic, on Thursday.

 

Technologies and governance practices pioneered in India have set benchmarks for the Global South and are helping innovation and humanitarian efforts, he said in his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. India has “an absolutely central role to play” in addressing AI’s opportunities and challenges.

 

AI may provide breakthroughs in health care and poverty reduction. “On the positive side, we have the potential to cure diseases that have been incurable for thousands of years, to radically improve human health, and to lift billions out of poverty, including in the Global South, and create a better world for everyone,” he said.

 

 

At the same time, he flagged concerns around the technology’s misuse and unintended consequences. “On the side of risks, I'm concerned about the autonomous behaviour of AI models, their potential for misuse by individuals and governments, and their potential for economic displacement,” Amodei said.

 

Reiterating Anthropic’s commitment to India, he said the company has opened an office in Bengaluru and appointed Irina Ghose as managing director for Anthropic India. Ghose has spent three decades building businesses in the country, he noted. The firm has also signed partnership agreements with major Indian enterprises, such as Infosys.

 

Amodei said the world is moving rapidly towards what he described as “a country of geniuses in a data centre” — a scenario in which AI agents surpass most humans in capability and coordinate at superhuman speed.

 

“That level of capability is something the world has never seen before and brings a very wide range of both opportunities and concerns for humanity,” he said.