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Gone are the times when defence would drive geo-politics, the seat has now been taken by technology. How do the tables re-arrange themselves in this new world? The equator of this world does change a lot when the lines of AI get horizontal instead of vertical – how? Purushottam Kaushik, Head, Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum helps us to decipher the economics, politics and ethics of technology in this chat done at the Zinnov Confluence 2025 (where AI was explored from many dimensions, by many hats and through many interesting huddles).
What is the view from your room like? Do you also see AI dominating everything now?
AI is, for sure, the current talk of the town and dominating many discussions. My session at Davos and visits to China show the same pattern. But what is interesting is how AI is going horizontal. Now we are talking of AI in bio, in healthcare etc. AI governance and ethics have also become hot topics. At the same time, there is chatter on quantum computing, biotech, autonomous technology (drones and cars). Of course, recently, defence has become a big topic. We are also witnessing discussions on quantum computing and compute power. A lot of unresolved issues are now in the front row. Like precision medicine or exploring longevity. There is also interest in chips, essential minerals- and, again, on a horizontal level. No one imagined geo-politics to get to the state it is now. No one imagined China and Taiwan becoming choking-points of the world.
Has geo-politics become really chaotic for technology?
Today, a country cannot imagine working independently – one has to look at collaboration and sustainability. The economics has become complicated, specially after the US elections. Lots of questions and calculations. A country has to protect jobs and exports on one side but also figure out the geo-political ‘give and take’ on the other side. There is also a lot of unpredictability in deals- walk-offs can happen. New alignments are being made- whether we look at China, Korea or Russia. It is a pretty chaotic time.
How can then inclusivity and geographical democratisation work?
Yes, it is a challenge. India is a 1.4 billion people-strong nation but 60 per cent do not make over USD 2 per day. We have to take care of many unresolved issues. We are in a world where one company’s market cap is more than a country’s GDP. We have to adopt a long-term plan. Something like what China has done with EVs, minerals, AI- the rise has not been sudden. India has to build its own path- on its innate strengths.
Can we pull that off with AI?
We are in the phase 0 of AI. It is a long race and we do not know who’s where. You cannot get ahead with just web/public data-the part of the iceberg about enterprise data and data behind walls has not been explored yet. But we have hope from what we did with DPI. That strength can be expanded to agriculture, healthcare etc. We need to figure out how to play- but looking at this as a long-term game. Instead of 800 LLMs and open source models, we have to think of enterprise data and a verticalised-approach.
Are ethics and safety – talked about enough- when we think of AI at global forums? Is Big Tech inclined towards those goals?
They are compliant of the laws. We are part of some discussions. Overall, yes, there is a concern in society on equity. But the companies are doing their best to manage these concerns. Their business model and work are trying to find a path ahead. It is an evolving journey. Consent, governance and safety are serious issues. Wait till we hit the next phase of AI when agents would be doing our shopping, compliance etc. It would be all fun to watch but the balance of business and responsibility there would become more critical.
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