Amitabh Kant warns AI risks inequality without DPI, urges 3 pillars

G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant warns that AI could create a deeply unequal society without a 'Digital Public Infrastructure' (DPI) framework. He stressed AI's evolution must be guided by accessibility, affordability, and accountability to be inclusive.

G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Tuesday emphasised that while Artificial Intelligence is set to disrupt every sector and way of life, its evolution must be guided by three pillars- accessibility, affordability, and accountability.

Futher, he warned that without a framework of "Digital Public Infrastructure" (DPI) to make Artificial Intelligence, risks creating a deeply unequal global society." Speaking on the transformative power of AI on the second day of the India AI Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Kant highlighted a significant disparity in how Large Language Models (LLMs) are currently trained, noting that the Global South, and India in particular, is the engine room of AI development.

Global South's Role in AI Development

"The important thing is that today we in India. I mean, if you look at open AI, Chat GPT, we are providing more data than the United States of America, 33% more data than what the United States of America do," Kant said.

He argued that for AI to be truly inclusive, it must move beyond English-centric models and become natively multilingual to serve diverse populations. "These large language models are getting better and better on the basis of data from the Global South. It is essential that this contribution translates into benefits for these regions," Kant stated.

Leveraging India's DPI Blueprint

Drawing parallels to India's success in financial inclusion, Kant suggested that AI should follow the blueprint of the country's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which allowed the country to leapfrog and achieve decades' worth of developmental progress in just seven years. "Our digital ecosystem worked, because our models were open-sourced. My view is that there has to be a layer of digital public identity in AI, on top of which we should allow private sector to open and compete," Kant said.

Kant was participating in a session "AI for India's Next Billion: Intergenerational Insights for Inclusive and Future-Ready Growth." Other panelists included Amandeep Singh Gill of the United Nations, Arunabha Ghosh, CEEW, Claire Melamed of, UN Foundation, Kunalika Gautam of UN Foundation, Ruchira Goyal of Sustainable Food Systems and Safiya Husain of Karya.

AI for Grassroots Social Transformation

The former NITI Aayog CEO added that in his proposed hierarchy, social transformation can be achieved by utilizing the tech of AI to solve grassroots issues in health, education, and agriculture.

A Warning Against Concentrated Power and Inequality

Reflecting on the post-World War II economic trajectory of the West, Kant warned that progress does not always guarantee equity. He cautioned that the current trajectory of massive AI investment could lead to a "highly inequal society" if the technology remains concentrated in the hands of a few.

"If we end up creating an inequal society... we have failed," Kant said stressing that the ultimate goal must be to transform the lives of citizens in the Global South, rather than just increasing the valuation of Big Tech. (ANI)

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