India proposes Global AI Commons to prevent a digital divide and democratize generative technology

The high-stakes landscape of artificial intelligence governance is undergoing a significant shift as India takes center stage to champion a more equitable technological future.[1][2][3] At a landmark gathering in New Delhi, the Indian government has formally proposed the creation of a "Global AI Commons," an ambitious initiative designed to prevent a new digital divide and ensure that the benefits of generative AI are not restricted to a handful of wealthy nations or corporations. This proposal, unveiled before an audience of world leaders, Silicon Valley executives, and policymakers from the Global South, marks India’s transition from a massive consumer of foreign technology to a primary architect of the rules that will govern the next era of innovation.

The Global AI Commons is envisioned as a shared international repository of datasets, computing resources, and pre-trained models, with a specific focus on sectors that drive social progress, such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.[4] By establishing a framework for "digital public goods" in the AI space, New Delhi is attempting to replicate the success of its domestic digital infrastructure—popularly known as the India Stack—on a global scale. This model, which provided millions of citizens with biometric identities and seamless digital payment systems, now serves as the template for a decentralized, interoperable AI ecosystem. The core philosophy behind the Commons is to move away from the "walled garden" approach of proprietary AI labs and toward a system where developing nations can access the essential building blocks of the technology without falling into cycles of digital dependency.

India's push for this collaborative framework arrives at a moment of unprecedented domestic adoption. The country has emerged as the second-largest market globally for both ChatGPT and Claude, trailing only the United States in terms of active user base.[5][4] Recent industry data indicates that weekly active users of ChatGPT in India have surpassed the 100 million mark, fueled by a massive demographic of students and young professionals who have integrated generative AI into their daily learning and coding workflows. This rapid adoption has forced major AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic to pivot their strategic focus toward the subcontinent. Anthropic recently established a dedicated presence in Bengaluru and has begun optimizing its models for nearly a dozen Indian languages, while OpenAI has intensified its regional engagement to cater to what its leadership describes as the world’s most vibrant developer ecosystem.

This market leverage is the cornerstone of India’s diplomatic strategy. While previous global summits in Europe and North America have focused predominantly on "frontier risks" and existential safety concerns, the New Delhi summit has widened the lens to include "developmental impact." The Indian government argues that for the Global South, the greatest risk of AI is not a hypothetical runaway intelligence, but rather the risk of being excluded from the economic gains the technology promises. To support this vision, the domestic IndiaAI Mission has been bolstered by a financial outlay of over 103 billion rupees.[6] This capital is being used to build out sovereign compute capacity, including the procurement of tens of thousands of GPUs that will be made available to local startups and researchers through an "AI-as-a-service" marketplace.[7]

The geopolitical implications of this "Third Way" of AI governance are profound. By positioning itself as a bridge between the innovation-led model of the United States and the regulation-heavy approach of the European Union, India is seeking to define a "development-first" doctrine.[3] This approach advocates for light-touch regulation that encourages experimentation while relying on existing legal frameworks to manage specific harms.[3] For the industry, this suggests a more permissive environment for deployment, but one that comes with the expectation of deeper transparency and resource sharing. Global tech leaders, including the chief executives of Google and Microsoft, have noted that India’s vast "data exhaust"—derived from nearly 900 million internet users—is becoming as valuable as the algorithms themselves, making the country’s cooperation essential for the training of future large-scale models.

Central to the Global AI Commons is the concept of "Sovereign AI," a term used by Indian policymakers to describe a nation’s ability to develop its own foundational models using localized data and cultural context.[3] The fear of "digital colonialism"—where a few Silicon Valley giants own the models that power critical national infrastructure—has prompted New Delhi to prioritize the development of indigenous Large Multimodal Models. Projects like Bhashini, which aims to provide AI-driven translation and communication across India’s 22 official languages, are being presented at the summit as case studies for how the Global AI Commons could work. By sharing these models and the underlying datasets with other nations in the Global South, India hopes to foster a coalition that can collectively negotiate with Big Tech on more favorable terms.

However, the path to a global consensus remains fraught with challenges.[2] Some international delegates have expressed concern that a broad focus on developmental "commons" might dilute necessary focus on safety guardrails and the mitigation of misinformation, such as deepfakes. There are also practical hurdles regarding the interoperability of data across different legal jurisdictions and the massive energy requirements of the compute infrastructure needed to sustain such a commons. Critics also point out that while the rhetoric of the summit emphasizes inclusion, the reality of building world-class AI requires a concentration of capital and specialized talent that is still largely centered in a few global hubs.

Despite these hurdles, the New Delhi summit signals a permanent change in the power dynamics of the AI industry.[1] The presence of heads of state and top-tier tech executives at the event underscores the reality that India is no longer just the "back-office" of the world, but a critical player in the high-end design of the global technological order. The proposed Global AI Commons represents a significant attempt to institutionalize this influence, moving beyond bilateral deals to create a multilateral framework that treats AI as a strategic public utility rather than a purely private commodity.

As the summit concludes, the focus will shift to the implementation of the "Delhi Declaration," which is expected to outline a roadmap for shared research and common technical standards. If successful, the Global AI Commons could democratize the tools of the 21st century, allowing a startup in Nairobi or a research lab in Jakarta to innovate on the same foundational level as a firm in Silicon Valley. For the AI industry, the message from New Delhi is clear: the future of the technology will be determined not just by the speed of its algorithms, but by the breadth of its accessibility and the equity of its distribution. India has firmly placed its stake in the ground, betting that a shared, inclusive AI ecosystem is not only a moral imperative but the only sustainable path for global economic stability.