India AI summit aims to shift focus from model races to scaled reality

One of the world’s most high-profile gatherings on artificial intelligence (AI) has opened in India, with analysts saying it could shift the focus from the race to build ever more powerful models to the challenge of deploying them at scale.As policymakers and tech executives convene for the India-ai-impact-summit" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="31797" data-entity-type="event">India AI Impact Summit, they say the five-day event offers emerging and middle-ranking economies a chance to reframe AI as public infrastructure and work together to put it into public services, rather than trying to outspend the United States and China in a capital-intensive technology race.This year’s gathering, which kicked off in New Delhi on Monday and is hosted by the Indian government, follows previous major AI summits in the United Kingdom, South Korea and France. It is the first in the series to be held in a developing country.India has quickly climbed the ranks in global AI competitiveness as measured by Stanford University researchers, placing third last year behind the US and China in an assessment of national AI ecosystems spanning research, talent, infrastructure and policy.Delegates watch an exhibition on the use of AI during the India-ai-impact-summit" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="31797" data-entity-type="event">India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: APAnalysts say the conversation in Delhi provides an opportunity to look beyond one dominated by the race to develop ever more powerful models and towards real-world applications.