New Delhi: Artificial Intelligence, popularly known as “AI” has become a buzzword today in different conversational settings. From applications like ChatGpt to DeepSeek where China announced its arrival on the scene in a big way, the initiation of what could be implied to as a global AI race has commenced in certainty. And before this competition matures and intensifies to a further stage with its attendant complexities, it is essential that we undertake a relatively simple assessment of what AI essentially is.
ELEMENTARY AND EVOLUTIONARY UNDERSTANDING
The technology known as artificial intelligence, or AI, enables computers to carry out activities that ordinarily call for human intelligence. These duties include making judgments, identifying patterns, comprehending language, and learning from experience. To further enhance our understanding, it is imperative that we identify the core elements within AI to be able to comprehend it better. Few of those elements are:
* Algorithms: A collection of guidelines or directives used to assist an AI system in learning and decision-making.
* Data: AI systems use vast volumes of information to learn and perform better.
* Computing power: State-of-the-art hardware that makes it possible for AI systems to process information and complete tasks fast.
AI as a concept has existed since the late 1950s when scientists began to ponder how machines could replicate human intelligence and thinking. This led to several milestones being attained in the decades ahead:
* 1956: The term
* 1961: In order to move die casings and weld pieces on cars—tasks considered too hazardous for humans—Unimate, the first industrial robot, began working on an assembly line at General Motors in New Jersey.
* 1979: The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), formerly known as the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, was established.
* 1985: At an AAAI conference, AARON, an autonomous sketching program, is exhibited.
* 1997: In a widely reported match, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov, making it the first computer program to defeat a human chess champion.
* 2006: Businesses like Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter began integrating AI into their user experience (UX) and advertising algorithms.
* 2011: Siri, a popular virtual assistant was launched by the Apple company.
* 2020: GPT-3, a model that leverages Deep Learning to generate code, poetry, and other language and writing tasks, began beta testing by OpenAI. Although it is not the first of its kind, it is the first to produce content that is nearly identical to human-made content.
Therefore, it is evident from the evolutionary graph of AI that it will be widely used for commercial purposes in the years to come. This will have real implications not only for individuals and society, but also for how various governments around the world adjust their administrative and governance structures in the wake of this unavoidable reality. In this context, the upcoming AI summit between India and France calls for attention.
INDIA-FRANCE AI SUMMIT
In response to pre-existing and impending prerogatives that oblige both in their respective capacities as formidable powers with influence at the global arena, France and India have decided to expand their ties in the domain of high-end and high-tech technology, which was symbolically marked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France a few days back. This decision builds on the long-standing and ever-expanding partnership in the spheres of conventional technology, both civil and military—an aircraft like the Rafale is the most recent visible example of advancing ties—and venture into emerging domains of technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI). Though the summit witnessed the culmination of highly anticipated deals and agreements, it is the initiation made on the issue of cooperation in the domain of technologies like AI that shall not only add a new lease of life to bilateral relations but also endow both the partners with a fresh sense of strategic purpose and standing in a world that is witnessing a “reset” of sorts. To provide a brief background that will help us assess and appreciate the current and future course of coordination, a cursory look at both France and India’s national AI strategies or policy roadmap will be of use. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, unveiled his vision and five-year national AI policy in March 2018. AI for Humanity is the name of the French AI strategy. The National AI strategy’s objectives heavily rely on innovation and applied research. The French national research institution for the digital sciences (INRIA) has been tasked with organizing the research component of the national strategy for artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, India’s strategy for Artificial Intelligence provides a preliminary framework with a special emphasis on inclusive growth and societal transformation that aims to establish the nation as a global leader in AI. NITI Aayog created this plan, which is focused on using AI to boost economic growth, enhance social results, and tackle important national issues in a number of areas.
AI AND SOCIETAL VALUES
As is evident with the broader outlines of the AI strategies, both France (nationally and as EU member state) and India have placed human and societal transformation at the heart of their strategies. Where transformation, as opposed to mere change and disruption, would represent evolution that is in line with core societal norms and cultural and national sensibilities. Because AI, with its penetrative, invasive and persuasive characteristic also can set off technological tremors which could generate more conflicts than cooperation—that could eventually bedevil us with an endless cycle of frenzy, societal conflict and even engineer violence. In this regard, it is also pertinent to mention that the European Union passed an act known as the EU AI Act on May, 2024, that among others, contains within it a risk-based outlook to regulation, applying case-specific and situational rules to AI in accordance to the risks they present. The AI summit in Paris 2025 was a critical and consequential moment in so far as harmonising and further fine tuning of prospective India-EU technological partnership is concerned with the bilateral conversations between the French and the Indian side offering a template in itself, aside from the overarching policy framework that EU has or is currently developing with regards to technology like AI.
CONCLUSION
In the present global geopolitical scenario, new opportunities and challenges alike arise that make cooperation between India and France more inevitable by the day. Sharing a sense of strategic clarity about current and imminent regional and international developments are steering policymakers across the two opposite shores of the Mediterranean Sea to towards deepening bilateral collaboration, the AI summit between them being the latest in an endearingly long list of mutual cooperation. We frequently use terms like strategy and strategic autonomy casually, which are concepts or rather desires that the EU, France, and India all share in the conduct of their foreign policy today. However, the dynamic of culture and its societal exemplification is a frequently overlooked component of that same strategic conduct and clarity. Any government or state can only use its strategic prerogatives if it has a sense of a broad national purpose, which can only be provided by a cohesive community. And with the advent of AI on the global technology scene, nations like France and India must adjust their laws and take a de novo approach to minimizing its risks and maximizing its benefits.
* Dr Manish Barma has completed his PhD from the School of International Studies, JNU and was an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at Rashtriya Raksha University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.