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Op-Ed FEBRUARY 20, 2026 | The Indian Eye 12

INDIAN INTEREST

AI at the Crossroads: Who Will Shape the

Intelligence That Shapes Our Economy?

As nations and corporations race to dominate artificial intelligence, the real question is whether AI will
serve humanity — or force humanity to serve it.

domestic adoption and lower entry
barriers for smaller players.
However, open source is not au-
tomatically synonymous with open-
ness in governance or freedom in
usage. The real question is who sets
the norms, controls the data and de-
fines the boundaries of acceptable
application.
India’s entry into the AI race
comes at a crucial moment. With
its vast talent pool, digital public
SHOBHAN SAXENA infrastructure and growing start-
up ecosystem, India has the poten-
he global scramble for arti- tial to chart a third path — neither
ficial intelligence supremacy purely corporate-driven nor tightly
Tincreasingly resembles a high- ments. Model sizes are brandished advanced economies and those still state-controlled. The onboarding of
stakes economic arms race. Govern- like trophies. Benchmarks become struggling with basic digital access. tens of thousands of GPUs, the push
ments are announcing billion-dollar marketing tools. Every week promis- Just as the industrial revolution cre- for indigenous foundational models
missions, venture capital is pouring es a “transformative” breakthrough. ated both wealth and exploitation, and the emphasis on AI applications
into model-building start-ups, and This atmosphere of hype has the AI revolution risks concentrating tailored to Indian challenges signal
tech giants are unveiling ever larger, real economic consequences. Capital power in a handful of corporations ambition.
ever more “powerful” systems. Yet that once flowed to diverse sectors — and countries. This is where the AI Impact
beneath the headlines and valuations manufacturing, green energy, public The job market is already feeling Summit acquires significance beyond
lies a deeper question: are we wit- health technologies — is now being the tremors. Unlike previous waves symbolism. Hosting the first global
nessing a genuine technological rev- funnelled disproportionately into of automation that primarily affected AI gathering of its scale in the Global
olution — or a funding-fuelled hype AI start-ups. Stock markets react manual labour, AI strikes at cogni- South sends a message: governance
cycle wrapped in the language of in- dramatically to AI announcements. tive professions — content creation, conversations cannot remain con-
evitability? Entire business models are being re- legal drafting, coding, customer sup- fined to Silicon Valley or Brussels.
The competition between differ- shaped on speculative projections of port, financial analysis. White-collar The People, Planet and Progress
ent models of AI has become intense. what AI might do, rather than what it workers, once considered secure, framework suggests an attempt to
American tech giants are pushing demonstrably delivers today. now find themselves vulnerable to anchor AI in sustainable develop-
proprietary large language models For the global economy, the algorithmic substitution. ment, employment generation and
trained on vast datasets, guarded implications are profound. Artifi- For developing countries that social welfare.
by paywalls and enterprise subscrip- cial intelligence promises produc- rely heavily on outsourcing and ser- But summits must translate into
tions. Europe speaks the language tivity gains across logistics, finance, vice exports, this shift is particular- structures. If India can champion
of regulation and ethical guardrails. healthcare, agriculture and gover- ly sensitive. If AI reduces the cost shared compute infrastructure, AI
China is advancing its own ecosystem, nance. Automation of repetitive of performing knowledge work in Commons and ethical standards
increasingly rooted in open-source cognitive tasks could lower opera- high-income countries, the tradition- rooted in inclusivity, it could help
or semi-open frameworks designed tional costs and unlock efficiencies al outsourcing model could weaken. rebalance global AI governance. It
for rapid adoption and strategic au- at scale. Countries that integrate AI The economic ladders that lifted could argue that AI is not merely a
tonomy. Now India, too, is entering effectively into public infrastructure millions into the middle class may re- tool for corporate profit or strategic
the fray with its IndiaAI Mission and — taxation systems, welfare delivery, quire reinvention. rivalry, but for public good — im-
the high-profile AI Impact Summit. transport networks — may see mea- China’s approach offers an in- proving agriculture productivity,
At one level, competition is surable gains in growth. teresting counterpoint. Its growing healthcare access, disaster manage-
healthy. It drives innovation, reduces But growth will not be evenly emphasis on open-source AI models ment and education.
monopolistic control and accelerates distributed. reflects both strategic necessity and Ultimately, the debate is not
breakthroughs. But at another level, The nations that control foun- geopolitical calculation. By making about algorithms; it is about agency.
much of what we see today feels like dational models, data infrastructure models accessible and adaptable, The race is underway. But win-
a race not merely for technological and semiconductor supply chains China positions itself as a techno- ning should not be defined by who
leadership, but for capital. AI firms will command disproportionate logical alternative to Western pro- builds the biggest model. It should
are competing for funding rounds, influence. AI could widen the eco- prietary systems. Open ecosystems be defined by who builds the most
valuations and geopolitical endorse- nomic gap between technologically encourage rapid experimentation, humane one.

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