San Francisco Frontiers - Tech chiefs address India AI summit as Gates cancels

Gates, facing questions over his ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, withdrew just hours before his speech to "ensure the focus remains on the AI Summit's key priorities", the Gates Foundation said.

The AI Impact Summit is the fourth annual international gathering focused on the rapidly advancing field, following previous summits in Paris, Seoul and Britain's wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley.

Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many companies, while fuelling anxiety about the risks to society and the planet.

Modi will speak on stage with French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday at the huge event that has drawn tens of thousands of attendees including dozens of world leaders and ministers.

Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Meta's Alexandr Wang also on the bill.

Another Gates Foundation official will take the place of Gates, who said this month he regrets "every minute" he spent with Epstein.

The mere mention of someone's name in the Epstein files does not in itself imply any wrongdoing by that person.

- New investments -

As the first global AI meeting held in a developing country, the five-day summit, which wraps up Friday, has also been a chance for India to boost its position in the booming sector.

The nation expects more than $200 billion in investments over the next two years, and US tech titans have unveiled new deals, investments and infrastructure for the South Asian country this week.

On Thursday, ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced a plan to build hyperscale AI data centre capacity in the South Asian country.

The previous day Google said it planned to build subsea cables as part of an existing $15 billion AI infrastructure investment.

"Since my childhood growing up in Chennai, India has undergone an incredible transformation," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.

"India is going to have an extraordinary trajectory with AI and we want to be a partner," he added.

US chip behemoth Nvidia -- the world's most valuable company -- also said it was teaming up with Indian cloud computing providers to provide advanced processors for data centres that can train and run AI systems.

AI data centres are under construction worldwide on a massive scale, as companies race to develop super-intelligent systems.

The huge amounts of electricity needed to power them and water to cool hot servers has sparked alarm at a time when countries have pledged to decarbonise their grids to try and slow climate change.

- Gridlock -

Last year India leapt to third place in an annual global ranking of AI competitiveness calculated by Stanford researchers, although experts say it has a long way to go before it can rival the United States and China.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is in town to attend the AI summit and hold talks with Modi, including on rare earths.

Leaders are expected to deliver a statement at the end of the week about how they plan to handle AI technology.

One fear is disruption to the job market, especially in India where millions of people are employed in call centres and tech support services.

"We are creating human imitators. And so of course, the natural application for that type of system is replacing humans," leading computer science researcher Stuart Russell told AFP.

Some say the broad focus of the event and vague promises made at previous global AI summits mean that concrete commitments are unlikely.

Many researchers and AI safety campaigners believe stronger action is needed to combat issues ranging from sexualised deepfakes to AI-enabled online scams and intrusive surveillance.

Siddharth Soni, the 23-year-old founder of an Indian AI-designed jewellery startup, said he could see both sides.

"We're losing artisans. We're losing the value of art, using AI, actually. That is one of the sad parts," he told AFP.

H.King--SFF