At the conclusion of the five-day AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Amnesty International criticized the event for failing to address the human rights risks of artificial intelligence (AI) deployment in India. Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director of Research, Advocacy Policy and Campaigns, highlighted that while India was praised for its technological progress, the summit overlooked the harms AI systems are causing, particularly to marginalized communities. She emphasized that facial recognition, automation in public services, and mass surveillance are exacerbating discrimination, exclusion, and violations of privacy, further entrenching state and corporate control.
Guevara Rosas noted that the summit’s focus on innovation, sovereignty, and “democratisation” of AI reflects a global trend of prioritizing power and economic growth over human rights. She stressed that meaningful engagement with civil society and impacted communities was largely absent, limiting the summit’s ability to advance protections. According to Amnesty International’s research, AI deployment in India has already caused exclusion from social protection programs, including food security, income, and housing benefits.
The summit was criticized for offering only soft governance measures and techno-solutionist narratives rather than binding regulations to safeguard rights. Guevara Rosas warned that AI summits have consistently failed to implement enforceable rights protections, allowing governments and the tech industry to deepen alliances without accountability. She called on states to urgently adopt binding regulations, prohibit technologies incompatible with human rights, and create mechanisms for public participation so communities can influence the technological futures that affect them.
