The US has assured India that access to artificial intelligence technologies, once provided, will not be cut off, a top bureaucrat said Thursday, asserting New Delhi believes the sector still needs innovation and it’s not yet time to regulate it yet.S Krishnan, Secretary Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, while interacting with the media on the sidelines of the two-day Pax Silica Summit here, said the Americans were concerned about the potential use of AI models such as Anthropic and Mythos and their impact.
Krishnan and K Nagraj Naidu, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, on Wednesday met Jacob Helberg, the US Under Secretary of State, who is driving the Pax Silica initiative to ensure alternate supply chains in the area of critical minerals and rare earths – a sector dominated by China.
The Pax Silica initiative aims at strengthening the security of supply chains in key technology sectors.
“On the AI models, the American concern is fundamentally how these models could potentially be used and what could be the potential impact. They were looking at a review mechanism for some of this internally before they are released,” Krishnan said.
“But I think there was an understanding and something that they certainly mentioned that access to technology, once it is provided, will not be cut off. I think that was ensured,” Krishnan said.
“We have to sort of ensure that there are certain areas where the global economy today needs reliable and resilient sources of supply,” he said.
“If you become over dependent and I think that’s what geopolitics and also things like the COVID pandemic have taught us, that you don’t become over-reliant on one source of supply,” he said.
“Therefore, you need a multiplicity of at least three or four reliable and trusted sources of supply for a variety of technologies,” Krishnan said.
On issues of privacy and regulation, Krishnan said: “Our position on regulation in this space is that right now it is still time for innovation. It’s not yet time to actually look at regulation in the sector that is a position that India has held,” he said.
“We’ve also stated and my minister has also stated that if there is a need to regulate and if the time is right, we will not hesitate to,” Krishnan said.
Earlier on Wednesday, India and the US discussed avenues for cooperation in building diversified and trusted supply chains when Krishnan met Helberg.
“They discussed avenues for cooperation in building diversified and trusted supply chains, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing, AI adoption, and securing access to critical minerals,” the Indian Embassy here said in a post on X.
This second Pax Silica Summit will see participation from member nations that are signatories to the framework exploring alternative pathways to secure access to critical minerals — a sector currently dominated by China.
At its core are semiconductors and critical minerals — resources that have become increasingly central to economic competitiveness and national security.
The first Pax Silica Summit was held last December. India joined the initiative in February on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
The initiative is not a trade agreement, but rather a pact for economic and military security, which will depend increasingly on who controls the artificial intelligence value chain and how, officials said.
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