Is the World Ready for Ethical AI Governance? Is AI the Next Global Disruption?

At the NDTV Ind.AI Summit, experts examined the geopolitical, ethical, and regulatory challenges shaping the future of artificial intelligence. The panel highlighted how AI is increasingly tied to national security and global competition, particularly between the United States and China, making governance a complex international issue. Nikhil Malhotra of Tech Mahindra stressed the need for ethical AI development rooted in cultural sensitivity, noting the importance of accounting for India's 19,200 dialects when building AI models. He shared how teams collected local dialect data to ensure culturally accurate and ethically sound AI outputs. The discussion also explored data sovereignty, regulatory fragmentation, and the need for balanced global collaboration, raising the broader question of whether AI could become a "COVID-like moment" that reshapes societies worldwide.