GPAI members commit to responsible, inclusive use of AI

The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit on Wednesday unanimously adopted the New Delhi declaration, agreeing to use artificial intelligence to help people in areas such as healthcare and agriculture.

All 29 members of GPAI agreed to collaboratively develop AI applications in healthcare and agriculture, Union minister of state for information technology (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. 

Chandrasekhar said at a briefing that the members of GPAI unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, which “promises to position GPAI at the front and center of shaping the future of AI in terms of innovation and creating collaborative AI between the partner nations.”

“Countries agreed to create applications of AI in healthcare, agriculture, and many other areas that concern all our countries and all of our people,” he added.

The minister informed that the declaration also seeks to ensure that AI and its benefits are inclusive and available to all the countries of the world, including the Global South. 

The 14-point declaration also recognizes “the rapid pace of improvement in advanced Al systems and their potential to generate economic growth, innovation, and jobs across various sectors as well as to benefit societies.”

“We support the development, in a collaborative manner, of necessary knowledge, skills, infrastructure, policies, risk management frameworks and governance mechanisms to effectively and responsibly leverage Al technologies and applications,” the declaration read. 

Chandrasekhar said the declaration commits countries to work on mitigating “concerns around misinformation and disinformation, unemployment, lack of transparency and fairness, protection of intellectual property and personal data, and threats to human rights and democratic values.”

The minister of digital affairs for France, Jean-Noel Barrot; vice-minister of internal affairs for Japan, Hiroshi Yoshida; and minister of AI and intellectual property for the UK, Viscount Jonathan Camrose attended the summit, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 December. 

Stressing the importance of AI, Modi said AI is becoming the biggest basis for sculpting the new future. He emphasized the need to make AI more inclusive and said that “the more inclusive, the development journey of AI, the more inclusive will be the results.” 

“The direction of AI development will totally depend on human and democratic values. It is up to us to keep a place for emotions along with efficiency, ethics along with effectiveness,” he said.

GPAI is a multi-stakeholder initiative with 29 member countries, which aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities. The group strives to work towards “trustworthy development, deployment, and use of AI.”

The previous summit in 2022 was hosted by Japan, the outgoing chair of GPAI. India is the lead chair of GPAI in 2024.