Today in San Francisco, two key voices in international AI policy, Anne Bouverot, French President’s Special Envoy for AI, and Dr. K. Srikar Reddy, Consul General of India in San Francisco, shared insights from the recent India AI Impact Summit and what lies ahead for global governance, including the upcoming G7 in France.
Hosted at Cathay Innovation in partnership with the Consulates of France and India in San Francisco, the event highlighted a shift toward “AI for Everyone” and a pragmatic focus on AI access, impact, and global inclusion.
From Paris to Delhi: AI for Everyone
The Delhi AI Action Summit, hosted by India, marked the first major AI gathering led by a Global South country, with participation from over 100 nations. The resulting New Delhi Declaration signed by 92 countries, including the U.S., signals growing global alignment.
A central theme: AI must be accessible, inclusive, and globally shared.
Three major initiatives stood out from the summit. First, there is a strong push to democratize AI resources by expanding access to compute, data, and models beyond a handful of dominant players. Second, the creation of an AI Impact Commons aims to serve as a global repository of real-world AI use cases that countries can adopt and scale without reinventing the wheel. Finally, a set of Frontier AI commitments brings together major tech companies that have agreed to share data on AI’s impact on jobs and society, increasing transparency around its real-world effects.
As Dr. Reddy emphasized, the goal is to prevent an “AI divide” and ensure that developing economies can fully participate in—and benefit from—the AI revolution.
A Human-Centric Vision of AI
India’s framework is rooted in a human-first philosophy, encapsulated in the concept of “MANAV” (meaning “human”). This approach promotes AI systems that are grounded in moral and ethical principles, governed with accountability, designed to be accessible and inclusive, and equipped with mechanisms to verify and label AI-generated content.
This vision aligns closely with European priorities. Anne Bouverot also noted that the Delhi summit reinforced the importance of deploying AI in high-impact sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and education, where it can drive tangible societal benefits.
Another critical theme is multilingualism. With thousands of languages spoken worldwide, ensuring that AI models can operate across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts is essential for truly global adoption.
The Rise of AI Geopolitics and Sovereignty
Since the AI Action Summit in Paris, the geopolitical dimension of AI has intensified.
We are now witnessing increased competition between major powers alongside the emergence of “sovereign AI,” where countries seek greater control over their data, infrastructure, and models to shape these systems according to their own economic priorities, linguistic realities, and regulatory frameworks. At the same time, new strategies are being developed to balance openness with national interests.
Even companies are adapting to this shift. NVIDIA’s focus on sovereign AI reflects growing demand for localized solutions within a global market.
Innovation and Uncertainty
Hosting the conversation in San Francisco added another layer of relevance. The Bay Area remains the epicenter of AI innovation, with rapid advances in foundation models developed by companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, alongside breakthroughs in autonomous systems like Waymo and next-generation chips unveiled at NVIDIA GTC. But alongside this innovation comes uncertainty.
The rise of agentic AI—systems capable of acting autonomously—could dramatically reshape the workforce raising pressing questions about the future of employment, particularly in service and software sectors, and whether workers will be able to adapt quickly enough to these changes.
For Anne Bouverot, the priority is clear: investing in training and reskilling must happen now, before disruption accelerates further.
The Next Frontier: Sustainability and Societal Impact
Beyond governance and geopolitics, two major challenges stand out.
The first is the environmental cost of AI. As the technology scales, its energy consumption—particularly through data centers—is becoming a growing concern. Initiatives such as the Coalition for Sustainable AI aim to ensure that innovation evolves in a way that is both efficient and environmentally responsible.
The second challenge relates to societal risks. From misinformation and deepfakes to child safety and mental health, the lessons of social media are still fresh. As Bougerot pointed out, the real danger would be to delay action for another decade.
Instead, there is a growing consensus around the need for early monitoring, stronger collaboration between governments, companies, and civil society, and more proactive policy approaches that anticipate risks rather than react to them.
A Defining Moment for Global AI
AI is no longer just a technological race; it is a global governance challenge, an economic transformation, and a societal test. The question is no longer whether AI will scale—it already is. The real challenge is ensuring it scales responsibly and inclusively, for everyone.
