As India becomes one of the largest markets for global AI firms, Former G20 Sherpa and ex-NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has delivered a strong message on the second day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Kant has urged for urgent steps to ensure that artificial intelligence truly benefits the Global South and reaches populations living below the poverty line instead of only benefiting the Western brands.
Speaking at the Bharat Mandapam venue in New Delhi, Kant highlighted the massive, yet often unacknowledged, contribution of developing nations to the training of today’s most advanced large language models (LLMs) from big names like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others.
India contributes to training data for global AI firms
In a statement to the press, Kant revealed a striking statistic, “Today, we in India, if you look at OpenAI, ChatGPT, we are providing more data than the United States of America. 33% more data than the United States of America is doing. These large language models are getting better and better on the basis of data from the Global South. So the models are getting refined, and data for the Global South, they will create business models and sell you products at a very high cost tomorrow…”
He warned that while data from countries like India is powering rapid improvements in global AI systems, the resulting technologies and commercial applications often remain expensive and inaccessible to the very populations whose data helped build them.
AI should serves the Global South
Kant said that there is a need to bridge this gap, stating, “The challenge is whether we can ensure that AI reaches those below the poverty line, vast segments of the population, whether AI can be used to transform lives of citizens in the Global South, and whether AI can be used to improve learning outcomes, improve nutrition standards, which are major challenges before the world.”
Kant’s remarks align with the summit’s core focus on inclusive, people-centric AI and the need for sovereign models that address local priorities in education, healthcare, nutrition, and livelihoods. The summit already saw India’s homegrown AI startup, Sarvam AI, releasing Sarvam Edge – an offline AI model that offers advanced voice-based systems to be run without internet on smartphones and laptops.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is India’s flagship global AI event, convened at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It has drawn heads of government, ministers from 45 countries, and CEOs of leading tech companies, positioning India as a key voice in shaping equitable and responsible AI governance for the Global South.