India, France stress on synergy at AI Roundtable on sidelines of summit

The second India-France AI Policy Roundtable held on the sidelines of AI Action Summit 2025 stressed the potential for India and France to synergise on various policy positions and technological initiatives, fostering benefits not only at the bilateral level but also on a global scale by leveraging complementary knowledge and skill sets.

The roundtable discussion started with opening remarks by India's Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) Ajay Kumar Sood where he highlighted India's priorities in global AI policy and governance, including responsible AI development and deployment, equitable benefit sharing, adoption of a techno-legal framework for AI governance, interoperable data flows, and collaboration on AI safety, research, and innovation.

Amit A. Shukla, Joint Secretary, Cyber Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs and Henri Verdier, Ambassador for Digital Affairs, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs gave co-chairs remarks highlighting DPI for AI, global AI governance, AI foundation models and priority areas, such as integrating AI in addressing global challenges. They also mentioned cross-border data flows lacking arbitration mechanisms and the importance of aligned views on data sovereignty.

Speakers at the roundtable emphasised the need for democratised access to AI resources, and capacity building while recognising the importance of techno-legal frameworks. The participants highlighted the significance of sovereign AI models, ethical AI deployment and the need to define globally accepted terminologies and standards. They also aligned on multilingual LLMs, federated AI compute infrastructure, and interoperable access to AI research, datasets, and high-performance computing resources.

Besides, the meeting covered key discussions on collaboration between India and France. Opportunities mentioned included creating indigenous foundation models and adopting a balanced governance approach to minimize risks while fostering innovation.

Sustainable AI and energy-efficient computing were highlighted, alongside the importance of cross-border cooperation in AI research, datasets, and startups. The conversation also touched on AI's societal impact, data governance, and the role of global institutions in shaping AI safety frameworks.

The official event titled '2nd India-France AI Policy Roundtable' at the Sciences Po Paris University campus on Tuesday was organised by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, India AI Mission and Sciences Po Paris.

The Second Roundtable was built upon key objectives from the First Roundtable organised in IISc, Bengaluru during Technology Dialogue 2025 on 25th January 2025. The First Roundtable discussion focussed on inclusive AI frameworks, diverse datasets, infrastructure and skills, and foundational models. It also addressed governance and innovation, public-private partnerships, sustainability and health, and academic and data collaboration. Both discussions highlighted ethical and responsible AI, along with sector-specific and long-term goals.