- Dr Amandeep Singh Gill described AI as one of the most powerful general-purpose technologies
- Gill warned India is vulnerable in terms of job loss due to AI
- He said AI’s power lies in pattern recognition, which will affect all sectors
As India prepares to host one of the world's most consequential summits on Artificial Intelligence, the United Nations' Technology Envoy has issued a clear message to governments, industry and citizens alike: do not fear AI, but do not surrender control to it either.
Artificial Intelligence, he says, is rapidly reshaping jobs, governance and global power structures, and unless it is guided by human values and global cooperation, its risks could outweigh its promise.
In a wide-ranging, exclusive conversation with NDTV, Dr Amandeep Singh Gill, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Technology, said India should brace for losing jobs, especially in the information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors as machines will increasingly take over lower-end jobs in the sectors.
He described AI as one of the most powerful general-purpose technologies humanity has ever created, comparable to electricity or the steam engine, with the capacity to transform every sector of society.
"Artificial Intelligence is not to be hated. It's not to be afraid of," Gill said. "It should be embraced with hope, but with some degree of caution, because it is a very powerful technology. Everything powerful that we encounter in life, we have to manage."
Pattern Recognition
Gill emphasised that AI's defining feature is its ability to identify patterns in vast quantities of data and generate outputs that increasingly resemble human reasoning and creativity. This, he said, makes AI uniquely disruptive and transformative.
"It approximates human perception, human reasoning, human actions," he explained. "So that means it can pretty much do a lot of what humans can do, especially intellectual activity."
From agriculture and public health to education, climate science and industrial production, Gill said there is "no field out there that will not be impacted by artificial intelligence."
For developing countries like India, he noted, AI holds enormous potential to accelerate growth and improve public service delivery, if it is deployed inclusively and responsibly. Yet the same technology that promises productivity gains and innovation also carries profound risks.
Jobs, Inequality and Concentration of Power
One of the most immediate concerns, Gill warned, is disruption of the global labour market, particularly white-collar and service-sector jobs. India, widely regarded as the software and IT services capital of the world, is especially vulnerable.
"All companies, software companies, are seeing efficiencies in terms of usage of human involvement in coding - 20 to 40 per cent already - going up very rapidly," he said, pointing out that newer AI models released this year are significantly more capable than those seen even a year ago.
Routine software tasks, business process outsourcing (BPO) and call-centre jobs are already being automated. "AI agents are increasingly human-like in terms of how they handle these conversations," Gill said, adding that workers at the lower end of the BPO sector face the greatest risk.
While new jobs are emerging, in AI model tuning, data annotation and cross-domain skills, Gill was candid about the scale of the challenge. "It's going to be a tough time," he said. "Rapid reskilling will be required at a massive scale."
Beyond employment, Gill flagged deeper structural risks: Bias in algorithms, misinformation and disinformation, and the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few companies and countries.
"We see risks of immense concentration of wealth and power- rich becoming richer and a few countries, few companies controlling the value coming out of AI," he warned. Left unchecked, AI could widen both the digital divide and the economic divide, undermining social cohesion.
Fear of AI vs Loss of Human Agency
Despite widespread public anxiety about machines "taking over", Gill dismissed such scenarios as science fiction, at least for now.
"I hope not," he said. "I think we underestimate human potential, human intelligence, and humans should always be masters of technology. Technology should not enslave human beings."
His deeper concern, he explained, lies elsewhere. "My worry really is not about robots taking over humanity," Gill said. "My worry is more about humans losing connection with each other, connection with their own inner selves, and somehow not connecting well with our real-world problems."
In a world increasingly mediated by algorithms, he cautioned, societies risk losing agency, allowing technology to distract from urgent challenges such as climate change, inequality and planetary health.
Governance
On the question of regulation, Gill acknowledged that countries are adopting very different approaches. The United States of America has favoured a lighter, innovation-friendly framework, while the European Union has moved toward legally binding rules. India, he noted, has already enacted data protection legislation, which forms part of a broader law=based approach to AI governance.
At the global level, the United Nations is attempting to provide a common platform. In September 2024, the UN adopted the Global Digital Compact, the first global agreement addressing AI governance.
"It's not a top-down approach," Gill said. "It is an approach where countries can learn from each other, discuss, share, avoid costly mistakes, and ground their governance in our shared norms, human rights, sustainable development and the UN Charter." The Compact has paved the way for a Global Dialogue on AI, to be held in Geneva and later New York.
The Red Line
Drawing on his background in nuclear disarmament, Gill addressed comparisons between AI and nuclear technology. While he argued that the world is not yet ready for an AI equivalent of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he made it clear that some applications demand immediate legal limits.
One such area is warfare.
"There may be some specific areas, niche applications like lethal autonomous weapons," Gill said, noting that the UN Secretary-General has called for a ban on systems that take life-and-death decisions without human involvement.
"These are principles and laws we have developed over centuries of civilised conduct," he said. "We do not want new technology to destroy some of that ethos."
Asked directly whether autonomous AI systems should be allowed to decide who lives or dies on the battlefield, Gill was unequivocal: "Yes, they should be avoided. Lethal autonomous weapons that take life-and-death decisions on their own, without any human involvement."
The Energy Paradox
Another major challenge is AI's soaring demand for electricity, water and raw materials, a reality that sits uneasily alongside global climate goals.
"As we abstract more and more with artificial intelligence, we have to rely more and more on the real world for energy," Gill said. In some regions, data centres are already struggling to secure power from the grid, forcing them to rely on fossil fuels.
To resolve this paradox, Gill argued, the world must accelerate the transition to renewables and reconsider nuclear energy, including small modular reactors. He also called for greater international collaboration to avoid duplicating energy-intensive AI models.
"There's no need to develop the same model fifty times over all over the world," he said.
India's Moment?
Gill described India hosting the AI summit - the first time such a major gathering is being held in the Global South - as both symbolic and strategic.
"The aperture has widened from extreme risk to impact, and the capacities needed to achieve that impact," he said, praising India's leadership and its emphasis on making AI understandable and accessible to ordinary citizens.
India's experience with digital public infrastructure, Gill noted, offers valuable lessons for the world. "There is trust in that system," he said. "It has done good things for India. And I think this is the next stage."
As AI reshapes economies, governance and power worldwide, Gill's message is one of guarded optimism. "We should not be afraid of AI," he said. "We should engage with it, we should shape it, and we should ensure that it serves humanity, not the other way around."
