A total of 86 countries, including the US, China and the UAE, as well as two international organisations have endorsed a new declaration to co-operate on artificial intelligence at a summit in India.
The New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact aims to stress that the benefits of AI must be equitably shared across humanity, the Indian government said.
The declaration was announced on Saturday, at the end of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Key points
The declaration is focused on boosting “international co-operation and multistakeholder engagement, respecting national sovereignty and advancing AI through accessible, and trustworthy frameworks”.
It covers seven key pillars, including democratising AI resources; economic growth and social good; secure and trusted AI; AI for science; access for social empowerment; human capital development; and resilient, efficient and innovative AI systems.
“Wide-scale adoption of AI and AI-based applications hold unprecedented potential to drive economic and social development,” the preamble to the declaration said.
“Open-source AI applications and other accessible AI approaches, where appropriate, and wide-scale diffusion of AI use cases can contribute to scalability, replicability, and adaptability of AI systems across sectors.”
It also stressed that AI has the potential to “uplift all sections of society” by enabling individuals to access knowledge, cross-border AI solutions, information, services, opportunities and enhancing participation in social and economic activities.
Why it matters
While AI holds the promise of raising productivity, stimulating innovation, and altering the nature of work, its adoption so far is uneven, “largely reflecting deep-rooted structural differences among advanced economies, emerging markets, and low-income countries”, the International Monetary Fund said in a report last year.
Because occupational structures differ across countries, the share of “high-exposure” jobs can vary substantially – up to 60 per cent in advanced economies versus 42 per cent in emerging markets and 26 per cent in low-income countries.
“These disparities imply that entire industries and national economies face different extents of AI-related disruption and opportunity,” the report said.
Access to AI-specific resources – chips, data, and infrastructure – also risks becoming a further source of global inequality, adding to the advantage of economies that can produce or readily acquire the critical inputs needed, the IMF said.
“While some countries are well-positioned to invest heavily in AI-driven innovation, others struggle to develop or incorporate even the most basic AI solutions.
“The resulting gaps in competitiveness, productivity, and human capital accumulation risk reinforcing existing cross-country inequalities and creating new ones.”
UAE's AI focus
The UAE, which is focusing heavily on developing its AI economy, led a strong delegation to the summit, led by Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi AI group G42 also signed a partnership with US-based governance platform Credo AI to accelerate the adoption of more responsible AI and counter biases being increased by the technology at the summit.
Under a preliminary agreement, the organisations will focus on risk-monitoring tools, policy design and education programmes for governments and enterprises, G42 said.
Over the past decade, the UAE has sought to become an AI leader as it continues to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.
The country’s affinity for research into the AI sector has resulted in the establishment of start-ups, partnerships and investments from industry leaders including Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI.
The UAE has also teamed up with the US to develop an AI campus, which will include 5 gigawatts of capacity for AI data centres, in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE will also be hosting the AI Summit in 2028.
Commitments secured
Participants to the AI declaration committed to “advancing shared global priorities in AI governance, promoting voluntary, non-binding frameworks, and translating vision into action through continued collaboration”.
The aim is to promote long-term international partnerships and position AI as a key driver of economic growth.
