New Delhi, 19 February (H.S.): French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized responsible, human-centric development of artificial intelligence during his address at the AI Impact Summit's inauguration on Thursday, stressing the need to safeguard national independence and strategic autonomy amid intensifying global competition.

Commending India's digital revolution as a civilizational achievement unmatched worldwide, Macron highlighted Aadhaar's 1.4 billion digital identities, UPI's billions of monthly transactions, and digital health certificates, enabling even undocumented street vendors seamless digital payments. He advocated Franco-Indian-European collaboration to harness AI for global good, linking innovation with humanity.

Macron warned that failure to unite in AI's strategic race risks being left behind, rejecting the notion that countries should serve merely as markets or data sources for foreign firms. He underscored AI's potential to boost productivity and labor markets, insisting it must be universally accessible and linguistically diverse—the summit's core purpose.

Expressing grave concern over digital and AI misuse harming children, Macron announced France's process to ban social networks for under-15s, joined by Greece, Spain, and other European nations, confidently expecting India's participation under PM Modi.

He positioned this among G7 priorities, declaring: Protecting our children is not just regulation; it represents our civilization, concluding with Jai Ho.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar