The AI Impact Summit in New Delhi brought together nearly 90 nations, but its voluntary framework exposed the limits of development-first AI diplomacy.
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That tension defined the AI Impact Summit 2026, held from Feb 16-20. Framed as the largest AI gathering of its kind in the Global South, the summit positioned India as a convenor of a development-first alternative to Western safety-centric AI governance. But as the week unfolded, a gap emerged between ambition and execution, and between diplomatic alignment and enforceable action.
Earlier AI summits drew comparatively fewer endorsements. The AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in 2023 had 28 signatories. The AI Seoul Summit saw 11 countries sign on. The AI Action Summit attracted 60 signatories, but it was not without controversy, as both the United States and the United Kingdom chose not to endorse the declaration.
The New Delhi declaration has the endorsement of all major nations in AI, including the US, the UK, and China.
During the Indian Summit, global tech CEOs shared the stage with ministers. The language of the summit blended geopolitics with philosophy, invoking “welfare for all, happiness for all,” as the moral compass for AI.
From inside the venue, it felt like India was trying to make the point that AI governance should not be dictated by Washington, Brussels, or Beijing. The Global South, too, has stakes in how this technology evolves. The summit’s framing was development-first.
Instead of focusing narrowly on existential risks or frontier model dangers, the conversations revolved around skilling, affordability, access to compute, energy efficiency, and public-sector use cases. In tone and emphasis, it differed from previous AI summits in the Global North, which have largely centred on safety, catastrophic misuse, and guardrails for advanced systems.
The Declaration, signed on February 18-19, reflected that shift. Endorsers included countries as varied as Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and a long list of developing nations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The document was structured around seven “Chakras” or pillars: human capital, democratizing AI resources, secure and trustworthy AI, AI in science, energy efficiency, access for social empowerment, and economic growth and social good. It repeatedly emphasised access to digital infrastructure, to foundational AI resources, to research capabilities. It acknowledged that affordable connectivity and robust infrastructure are prerequisites for AI adoption. It recognised open-source approaches as potentially important for scalability and adaptability.
But a pattern becomes clear when reading the declaration closely. Nearly every framework it references, like the Charter for the Democratic Diffusion of AI, the Trusted AI Commons, the Global AI Impact Commons, and the International Network of AI for Science Institutions, is described as voluntary and non-binding. Countries “take note of” these platforms. They “recognize” guiding principles. They “encourage” collaboration. There are no enforcement mechanisms, no financial commitments, and no reporting obligations. The document signals shared intent, but it does not bind anyone to measurable action.
From large billboards on arterial roads to smaller hoardings tucked into traffic junctions and metro pillars, New Delhi was blanketed in AI Impact Summit posters. Almost all of them prominently featured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face, often larger than the summit logo itself. Whether you were driving in from the airport, stuck at a red light, or walking toward the venue, it was nearly impossible to avoid his gaze. The visual messaging made it clear that this was not just an international technology gathering but a politically owned event, unmistakably stamped with the Prime Minister’s presence.
Day 1: The first day of the Summit set the tone in an unexpected way. Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the venue, exhibitors were asked to vacate the expo area so security teams could sanitise the premises. Startups that had invested time and money into elaborate booths were told to step out. Many waited outside for hours. Some reported lacking access to basic facilities like water and food during the wait, and there were accounts of devices going missing amid the confusion. The security protocol itself was not surprising. But the optics were jarring. A summit about democratising AI resources began by restricting access and displacing the very exhibitors meant to showcase innovation.
Day 2: On the second day, when the expo opened to a wider public audience, enthusiasm collided with logistics. Delhi’s roads were choked for hours. Attendees who had registered in advance described taking up to two hours to reach the venue. What was meant to be a celebratory opening to students, developers, and the broader public became an endurance test. The sheer number of people trying to attend was itself a sign of how much interest AI now commands in India. However, the scale of the programming often overwhelmed the logistics. With over 100 sessions scheduled each day and a lineup packed with senior policymakers, CEOs, and AI researchers, demand far exceeded room capacity. In multiple instances, halls meant to seat 100 people had nearly three times that number attempting to squeeze in, crowding doorways just to catch a few minutes of the discussion. The summit’s rhetoric about scalable systems and efficient infrastructure felt at odds with the lived experience of simply trying to get inside.
Day 3: The third day exposed a different kind of problem. Credibility. One of the largest booths at the expo belonged to Galgotias University, an Indian university. At its centre was a quadruped robodog, presented as a product developed at the university’s AI Centre of Excellence. The robot was in fact a Unitree Go2, a commercially available machine manufactured by a Chinese company. The booth also featured a Korean soccer-playing drone described as being “end-to-end engineered” at the university, a claim that did not hold up. The government ultimately asked the university to vacate the expo. For a summit that devoted sessions to trustworthy AI systems and resilient ecosystems, the episode was embarrassing. It highlighted weaknesses in screening and oversight, and it undercut the credibility of the broader conversation about integrity in AI development.
Day 4: By the fourth day, attention had shifted back to the main stage. In a carefully choreographed photo opportunity, Prime Minister Modi stood alongside prominent AI leaders, including Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Sundar Pichai. At one point, Modi raised Pichai’s and Altman’s hands in a gesture intended to signal unity. The image was meant to capture cooperation between governments and industry. Yet observers quickly noticed that Altman and Amodei, whose companies are widely viewed as competitors in the race to build advanced AI models, did not clasp hands. It was a fleeting moment, but it captured an underlying tension.
Day 5: The fifth day brought protest. Youth workers from the opposition’s Youth Congress staged a shirtless demonstration inside the summit venue and were subsequently arrested. Inside, sessions continued on AI for social empowerment and inclusive growth. Outside, political dissent was contained. The juxtaposition was stark. A summit that spoke of widening participation and advancing social good unfolded within the constraints of domestic political realities.
As the week’s missteps began to pile up, the Indian government announced that the expo would be extended by an additional day, citing “overwhelming public response.” While the turnout had indeed been strong, the decision also came across as an attempt to steady the narrative after a series of logistical embarrassments, reframing disruption as demand.
Taken together, the five days underscored both the promise and the limitations of summit diplomacy. On one level, the AI Impact Summit achieved something significant. It brought together a diverse set of countries to articulate a development-oriented vision of AI. On another level, it illustrated how easily high-level declarations can drift into abstraction. Even well-intentioned frameworks risk becoming symbolic.
Walking out of the venue on the final evening, what lingered was not just exhaustion and irritation, but the contradictions of the week. There was genuine excitement among students and founders. There was serious discussion about energy-efficient AI and public-sector applications. There was also mismanagement, inflated claims, traffic chaos, and political theatre. The summit showed that the Global South wants to shape the AI future, not simply inherit it. It also showed how difficult it is to translate that aspiration into coherent, credible action.
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