By 
Photo source: Luke Jones, via Unsplash, September 27th, 2024.
26-02-2026 | Dominik Miklósi | Asia Researcher, Global Human Rights Defence.
India hosted the AI Impact Summit between February 16th and 20th, 2026, in the country’s capital, New Delhi. More than 30 countries and over 300 exhibitors participated in the event, which aimed to explore the future of AI across people, planet, and progress.Representatives of major tech corporations were among the key attendees, including Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Google, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Brad Smith, the President and Vice Chair of Microsoft.
However, the summit has been criticised by many, including several non-governmental human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who have condemned the conclusions and circumstances of the event.
Vincent Berthier, the Head of the RSF Technology and Journalism Desk, said that “The final declaration is full of clichés and sweeps issues related to the information space under the carpet. There is no commitment to protecting democratic processes from AI-driven disinformation campaigns […]”. Referring to the technology’s impact on the media industry and the protection of the press, Mr. Berthier added that “[…] At a time when these technologies are being used to produce deepfakes of journalists, and chatbots are an emerging, problematic way for the public to access information, the absence of these issues from the declaration is highly significant”.
Furthermore, Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director of Research, Advocacy Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, stated the following: “While India was lauded by world leaders for its technological progress, the human rights concerns arising out of technology deployment in the country were papered over […]”. Ms. Rosas pointed out that “[…] research has shown that the deployment of harmful technologies such as facial recognition and automation in the public sector have threatened the right to privacy […] in India and have led to discrimination and exclusion of marginalized communities […]”.
Although AI summits focused on developing inclusive growth and safeguarding our shared planet are crucial for the future, setting aside discussion of critical human rights considerations risk sowing discord and harming the populations that AI is meant to help.
