India A Key Player In AI Future: Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales To NDTV

At a time when India is positioning itself as a global hub for artificial intelligence, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales struck an optimistic yet cautious note on the country's role in shaping the future of AI, stressing the importance of human oversight, open knowledge and public-private collaboration.

Wales described the scale and energy of the event as emblematic of India's growing influence in global technology debates. With more than 200,000 registrations and delegations from over 20 countries, the summit, he said, exceeded expectations. "It's all the energy of India," Wales remarked. "I thought it would be big. It's bigger than that."

Wales underlined India's unique strength as a country where technology adoption is driven not just by corporations but by a vast, young and tech-savvy population. Drawing on his experience with Wikipedia, he pointed out that India is the third-largest contributor to the English Wikipedia and is active across 25 Indic languages. "We see a very tech-savvy young community in India with a lot of energy," he said, adding that this linguistic diversity makes India especially relevant in the age of AI.

According to Wales, one of the most promising aspects of artificial intelligence is its growing ability to work across languages, an area that still needs improvement but holds enormous potential for countries like India. Combined with a strong software workforce and a deeply entrepreneurial culture, AI could significantly boost productivity and innovation. "It's a very exciting time," he said.

At the same time, Wales did not shy away from concerns surrounding AI, particularly its use in conflict and weaponisation. While he said he could not speak authoritatively on military applications, he emphasised that in the realm of ideas and information, AI must never operate without human judgement. "AIs can produce a lot of text," he cautioned, "but is it valid or invalid? You need a human to really tell you that."

This insistence on human oversight also shaped his views on regulation. With governments worldwide grappling with AI safety frameworks—from Europe to the US and China—Wales argued that regulation cannot succeed without cooperation between the state and the private sector. Governments alone, he said, tend to be slow and sometimes clumsy. "Public-private partnership is the only possibility," he noted, calling for policies that both mitigate risks and actively encourage positive use cases, particularly in fields like medicine and neglected diseases.

For India, where misinformation has emerged as a serious challenge in the age of social media, Wales offered a clear warning. AI, he said, can amplify disinformation just as easily as it can spread knowledge. The solution, in his view, lies not only in technology but also in public awareness. "Just because something comes across your social media, that doesn't mean it's true," he said, urging people to value professional journalism and verified sources — principles that underpin Wikipedia's editorial model.

On the future of Wikipedia itself, Wales was firm that humans will remain central. While AI tools are beginning to be used at the margins, the community remains sceptical due to issues such as hallucinations and factual errors. "If you have a community that values truth, neutrality and discourse, you can struggle through this," he said, reiterating Wikipedia's core vision of "knowledge for everyone".

Wales also reflected on the broader trajectory of AI and the internet, arguing that while AI is clearly a transformative force, its most disruptive impacts may come from open-source innovation rather than proprietary systems. He highlighted the growing ability to run AI locally on modest hardware, a trend that could level the playing field for startups. "You don't have to be the richest companies in the world," he said. "You can be a smaller startup in India doing something amazing with AI."

Ending on a personal note, Wales reaffirmed his strong connection with India, calling it one of his favourite places to visit. Having already made multiple trips this year, he praised Indian Wikipedia volunteers for working quietly with libraries and schools to spread knowledge beyond headlines. "That's what I'm excited about," he said — a grassroots contribution, he suggested, that mirrors India's broader promise in the AI era.