Will AI be both a spear and shield for the Global South?

The benefits of the march of technology has always been uneven across the world, particularly the Global South. Be it the industrial, the information technology or the digital revolution. Larger parts of the world, particularly the Global South, have remained an outlier due to a number of domestic and external factors. 

Technology has tended to be tools of dominance by a handful of countries. This concern has endured now that the world is on the threshold of AI revolution amidst uncertainty about its promises, potential and actual results. Once again, the question is: will the Global South be left behind in the race for AI and be content with playing the catch-up game?   

It is in this backdrop that the AI India Summit held in New Delhi in February assumed significance. One of the major topics of discussions was how the Global South stands to benefit from AI which is set to touch almost every part of human life. After all, it is the Global South from where some of the largest datasets are expected to emerge. The Summit brought together the world's leading technology companies, academic institutions, start-ups, industry bodies and global partners.

Inaugurating the AI Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi articulated the M.A.N.A.V. vision for AI. In his speech, he expanded the acronym Moral and Ethical Systems, Accountable Governance, National Sovereignty, Accessible and Inclusive, Valid and Legitimate and framed it as a template for an inclusive, ethical and responsible global AI governance that could help address some of the most difficult challenges like agriculture, industry, food security, public health, education and climate change.

The Prime Minister insisted that AI must be given an open sky while the command must remain in human hands. He compared this to GPS which suggests the route but leaves the final decision to the user.He had a word of caution that some countries and companies consider AI a strategic asset to be developed confidentially. But, he said, India believes AI will benefit the world only when it is shared. Hence, the importance of an open code and shared development will allow millions of young minds to make AI better and safer.

Discussions at the Summit agreed that transparency in AI use is the greatest safeguard. As Modi pointed out, deep-fakes and fabricated content are destabilizing open societies. Digital content too must carry authenticity labels so people can distinguish between real and AI-generated material.

A key point of discussions at the Summit was how AI would affect the job market and how governments should handle the changing nature of work and job scenarios in the context of accelerating AI adoption and the policy choices required to manage the transition. Drawing on emerging international evidence, the discussion noted differentiated impacts across age groups, sectors, and geographies, with early trends indicating employment pressures for younger workers in roles with higher AI exposure.

It was pointed out that inadequate data across countries continues to constrain the ability of governments to design timely and targeted interventions to cope with AI's impact on jobs. The conversation, however, suggested going ahead with adaptive policy in the absence of perfect data, strengthening social protection systems and expanding re-skilling pathways.

Another most talked about subject at the AI Summit was how Artificial Intelligence can transition from infrastructure-building to measurable societal impact. The panel discussion focused on adoption gaps in the Global South, public-interest applications, regulatory balance and the metrics that should define AI success over the next five years.

There was agreement that the true measure of AI progress lies not in the size of models or scale of computing infrastructure but in the number of lives transformed. Hence, the need for inclusive AI design, trust, institutional capacity building, innovation-friendly regulation and global collaboration to ensure AI serves humanity equitably and responsibly across the Global South.

Speakers at the Summit also emphasised South–South collaboration should show the path to shape AI governance rather than merely adapt to it. This, they opined, would ensure frontier technologies scale enhances public trust, protect fundamental rights and support long-term global stability.

Cina Lawson, Minister of Public Sector Efficiency and Digital Transformation, Togo, said that for Africa, AI is not about technology alone but about solving real-life problems in priority sectors such as health, education, agriculture and public administration. She noted that Africa accounts for less than one per cent of global AI talent and continues to face infrastructure and connectivity gaps.

It was felt that for the Global South, collaboration is a technological and economic necessity because AI is already being applied in real-life conditions across sectors such as health, agriculture and public service delivery. This validates the need to move from isolated national efforts to shared risk assessment, interoperable governance frameworks and coordinated safety tools. 

The next phase, they noted, will be defined by whether countries can build institutional capacity, exchange evidence and operationalize common standards quickly enough to keep pace with the accelerating frontier.

At a time when AI is moving to shape economies, governance and daily life, the discussions in the Summit focused on how ethical reflection, human oversight and risk-based regulation must be embedded into the architecture of AI from the very beginning if the technology is to scale democratically and deliver real societal value.