India to assume the Chair of Global Partnership On AI

India will be chairing the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), the Ministry Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) announced on November 20, 2022.

The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar represented India at today's meeting in Tokyo where it took over the reign from outgoing Council Chair France. 

“India will work in cooperation with member states to put in place a framework around which power of #AI can be exploited for the good of Citizens across the globe-with guardrails to prevent misuse and user harm,” Chandrasekhar tweeted. My Address @GPAI_PMIA Summit as India takes over the Council chair. pic.twitter.com/hqnItJN7p4, he said.

The development notably comes a few weeks ahead of India's Presidency stint at the G20 summit—a consortium of the world's 20 most powerful economies.

As per the information shared by Ministry of Electronics and IT, in the election to the Council Chair, India had received more than a two-third majority of first-preference votes while Canada and the United States of America ranked in the two next best places in the tally, as a result of which they were elected to the two additional government seats on the Steering Committee.

Launched on June 15, 2020, GPAI is an international initiative that facilitates international cooperation on AI by bringing together experts from fields such as science, industry, civil society, governments, international bodies, and academia, supporting cutting-edge research, as well as applied activities, on AI-related activities.

The consortium currently has 25 member countries, including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and Singapore, and India. Montreal (Canada) hosted the inaugural edition on December 3 and 4, 2020, followed by Paris, on November 11 and 12, 2021. Tokyo is the first Asian city to host this summit.