The third way in AI governance

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Paris this week to co-chair an AI Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, both countries have a unique opportunity to lay down an alternative global approach to future technologies. Artificial Intelligence tools will inevitably reshape the way we work, interact, invent and, most importantly, earn. At a pre-visit briefing last week, foreign secretary Vikram Misri emphasised that AI applications must be “safe, humane, responsible, and trustworthy” — a stand that aligns with growing expert consensus.

The need for such an approach has only been reinforced by recent developments. First, the geopolitical landscape of AI showed a significant shift when Silicon Valley’s presumed dominance was challenged by Chinese startup DeepSeek, which showed that cutting-edge AI is possible without massive computational resources. Second, the American tech leadership demonstrated unprecedented malleability in the values it once championed. Major tech CEOs – including those of Meta and Google, who once openly protested Trump administration policies — are making overt gestures of alignment with the former president returning to the White House again. While companies have the right to adjust their positions, their dramatic shifts — particularly on issues of online content safety and commitment to inclusivity — reveal how vulnerable even the most powerful industrial sectors can be to political pressure.

This flux presents an opportunity. The India-France partnership can potentially lay the groundwork for an alternative global framework on adopting, encouraging, and regulating technology — one that avoids both China’s opaque and authoritarian policies and the shifting priorities of US-based Big Tech. Their collaboration could establish frameworks that truly and sustainably balance innovation with responsibility, market dynamics with public interest. As middle powers with strong democratic traditions and significant technological capabilities, India and France are well-positioned to influence international standards for AI development and deployment. In doing so, they might just chart a third way forward for global technology governance.

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