India AI Summit 2026: Who said what

On Thursday, world leaders and tech titans charted the path to an AI future, from Modi’s Manav vision to Altman’s 2028 warning

Feb 19, 2026, 17:53 IST7 min

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi: India’s perspective on AI is clearly reflected in the theme of this summit: Sarvajan Hitay, Sarvajan Sukhay, meaning ‘Welfare for all, happiness of all’. This is our benchmark. To ensure that humans do not become mere data points or limited to being just raw material, AI must be democratised. It must be made a medium for inclusion and empowerment, particularly in the Global South. At the New Delhi AI Impact Summit, I present the Manav Vision for AI. Photo by PIB India

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Emmanuel Macron, President of France: The smartest AI is not the most expensive. It is the one built by the best people and for the right purpose, models, infrastructure, talents, capital and adoption. This is where the Indian model is truly revolutionary, providing solutions for everyone in the country, from 200 million Indian farmers in their own dialect, to travel advice for 400 million pilgrims, or AI diagnostics for rural clinics. Photo by Ludovic Marin / AFP

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António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations: AI must be accessible to everyone. That is why, encouraged by the General Assembly of United Nations, I am calling for a global fund on AI to build basic capacity in developing countries, skills, data, affordable computing power and inclusive ecosystems. Our target is $3 billion. That is less than 1 percent of the annual revenue of a simple single tech company: A small price for AI diffusion that benefits all include businesses building AI. Photo by Ludovic Marin / AFP

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Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Electronics and IT: We are conscious of the challenges that are facing our IT industry, and to mitigate it, we are working with the industry and academia to upskill, reskill and to build a new talent pipeline for this new intelligence age. While we harness the benefits of AI, we must also find collective solutions for mitigating the risks by placing human safety and dignity at the heart of AI. Photo by Amit Verma

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Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO, Google DeepMind: The advent of AGI, I think, is going to be one of the most momentous periods in human history—probably something more like the advent of fire or electricity. I think it’s going to be something like 10 times the impact of the Industrial Revolution, but happening at 10 times the speed, probably unfolding in a matter of a decade, rather than a century. Photo by Amit Verma

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Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic: AI has been on an exponential for the last 10 years, and as part of a sort of Moore’s Law for intelligence. We are now well advanced on that curve, and there are only a small number of years for AI models surpassing the cognitive capabilities of most humans. We’re increasingly close to the country of geniuses in a data centre, a set of AI agents that are more capable than most humans at most things, and can coordinate at superhuman speed. That level of capability is something the world has never seen before. Photo by Ludovic Marin / AFP

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Sam Altman, CEO OpenAI: We believe we may be only a couple of years away from early versions of true super intelligence. If we are right, by the end of 2028, more of the world’s intellectual capacity could reside inside of data centres than outside of them. A super intelligence, at some point on its development curve, would be capable of doing a better job being the CEO of a major company than any executive, or doing better research than our best scientists. Photo by Ludovic Marin / AFP

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Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google: No technology has me dreaming bigger than AI. It is the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes. We are on the cusp of hyper progress and new discoveries that can help emerging economies leapfrog legacy gaps. But that outcome is neither guaranteed nor automatic. To build AI that is truly helpful for everyone, we must pursue it boldly, approach it responsibly, and work through this defining moment together. Photo by Bhawika Chhabra / Reuters

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Alexandr Wang, chief AI officer, Meta: Our vision is personal, super intelligence, AI that knows you, your goals, your interests, and helps you with whatever you're focused on doing. It serves you whoever you are, wherever you are. Photo by Brian Snyder / Reuters

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Brad Smith, vice chair and president, Microsoft: We’ll need governments and others to generate demand for the use of AI in the Global South, because that is the only way to get the wheels of the market spinning. And to do what we need to do together—it is so clear when you study the history of technology, infrastructure is not only hardware. It’s not only wires and grids. It’s skilling for people, because the key to enabling a country and a population to use a general-purpose technology at scale is to give people across the country access to the skills they need to put it to work. Photo by Bhawika Chhabra / Reuters