The Rise of Open and Democratised AI: A Global Perspective

The Paris AI Summit marked a significant shift in the global AI landscape, highlighting the importance of inclusivity, cost-efficiency, and open-source development. India's commitment to open and ethical AI is reshaping the future of AI worldwide.

AiOpensourceGlobal CooperationData AccessibilityDigital InfrastructureReal EstateFeb 25, 2025

The Rise of Open and Democratised AI: A Global Perspective

Real Estate:The Paris AI Summit earlier this month inked an agreement on inclusive and sustainable Artificial Intelligence (AI).
With 61 nations and organisations signing the agreement, the real success of this summit was its ability to align global efforts and reinforce AI’s diversity, both in terms of geography and perspectives.

While the absence of the US and UK has been a talking point, the focus should be on the broader impact of global AI cooperation.
Disagreements on governance are natural in such transformational discussions.
However, each dialogue and declaration is moving the needle forward in shaping AI’s future.
A pivotal moment of the summit was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined a bold and inclusive vision of AI and elaborated on how AI development is deeply interdependent across borders and governed collectively, and why governance must not solely focus on managing risks but should also promote innovation, ensure inclusivity, and drive equitable access.
In this context, he advocated open and ethical AI.

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) stands as a model for scalable, open, and cost-effective AI deployment.
In the corridors of Silicon Valley’s most powerful AI labs, a cardinal assumption — the scaling law, which dictates that an AI model’s performance improves with more computing power, larger data sets, and increased parameters (more capital) — has just been upended.
The breakthrough came with DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that developed and open-sourced a frontier model – R1 -- for just $6 million — a stark contrast to the over $100 million reportedly spent on training OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO publicly reacted by stating that he believes they are on the wrong side of history in the open-source debate.

The great AI inversion has taken root.
Cost efficiency wasn’t the only disruption.
DeepSeek shattered another long-held assumption Access to frontier AI models is expensive.
It is offering its AI model via an API at 55 cents per 1 million input tokens and $2.19 per 1 million output tokens.
In comparison, OpenAI’s pricing for its flagship model O1 stands at $15 per 1 million input tokens and $60 per 1 million output tokens.
This does more than make AI cheaper — it fundamentally changes who can access and experiment with cutting-edge models.

Beyond cost efficiency and accessibility, this inversion is about an alternative AI evolutionary path.
The notion that advanced AI requires massive, centralised resources is crumbling.
In its place, an alternative path where openness, collaboration, and democratisation have become the driving forces of AI innovation, freeing progress from the monopoly of a few entities.
Yann LeCun, the Turing Award-winning scientist behind Meta’s Llama model, remarked that “open-source models are surpassing proprietary ones.”

The global landscape had hitherto been shaped by closed, proprietary ecosystems that limited accessibility, reinforced monopolies, and slowed down AI’s ability to adapt to real-world diversity.
India’s technology policy, instead, has built digital ecosystems that are open, accessible, and scalable – precisely what AI needs.
India has consistently demonstrated a unique ability to achieve more with fewer resources — evident in ISRO’s landmark Mangalyaan mission, which redefined global standards for resource efficiency.
Additionally, India’s technological ecosystem is deeply rooted in a culture of openness, as seen in the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) societal transformation, fostering innovation and collaboration at every level.

The government has announced that it will deploy 18,693 GPUs across its AI ecosystem — notably, this is nine times greater than what DeepSeek utilised for its frontier model and approximately two-thirds of ChatGPT’s compute capacity — while also implementing measures to reduce computation costs below ₹100 per hour.
Further, the government has announced the establishment of a data bank for AI, offering researchers, startups, and developers access to high-quality, diverse datasets essential for building scalable and inclusive AI solutions.
These interventions come at a pivotal moment, as the world witnessed a compelling demonstration of how optimised resource utilisation can unlock transformative possibilities.

India has built a strong foundation in the AI realm.
With 420,000 employees in AI-related roles and a 14-fold increase in AI-skilled professionals over the past seven years, India now boasts of the world’s highest enterprise AI adoption rate, at 92%, and the world’s second-largest AI developer community.
Unlike the proprietary, closed AI ecosystems emerging in Silicon Valley, India has pursued digital transformation with a commitment to transparency, interoperability, and collective progress.
This commitment to openness is already evident with DPI — from Aadhaar and UPI to even Bhashini — which is now supporting more than 22 languages and has processed over 100 million inferences.
By strategically fostering this same ethos within India’s evolving AI ecosystem, we can ensure the design, development, and deployment of cutting-edge models while positioning AI as a public good.
Crucially, this approach will aid the technological future of AI worldwide.

The potential of an open and democratised AI ecosystem is already evident.
More than just ensuring accessibility, such an ecosystem is a technical imperative for AI’s advancement itself.
Progress in AI capabilities will depend on its interface with real-world complexity and diversity.
For AI to remain adaptable and inclusive, it must be built by, engaged with, and utilised for a broad spectrum of aspirations, challenges, and real-world conditions.
This requires contributions from a global network of researchers, engineers, multidisciplinary experts, civil society, and academia, each offering distinct perspectives, lived experiences, and problem-solving approaches.

An open AI ecosystem fosters such sustained engagement with diverse challenges, shaped by the needs of different socio-economic contexts.
Through real-world testing across varied applications, industries, and linguistic landscapes, AI systems can undergo iterative refinement — an essential process that no single organisation can replicate in isolation.
Open ecosystems will allow AI to evolve dynamically, becoming more capable, resilient, and broadly applicable as it interacts with an ever-changing world.
This great AI inversion is a reordering of power, access, and possibility.
The erroneous belief that AI progress will be dictated by scale and proprietary control has fallen.
In its place, a new reality has taken shape — one where openness, collaboration, and democratisation will bring the next round of benefits.
For too long, the global AI race has been framed as a binary contest between the US and China.
This narrative is obsolete.
AI leadership is no longer about who spends the most, but about who innovates smarter, scales faster, and democratises AI for all citizens.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the key outcome of the Paris AI Summit?

The Paris AI Summit resulted in an agreement on inclusive and sustainable AI, signed by 61 nations and organisations, marking a significant step in global AI cooperation and diversity.

What is the significance of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)?

India’s DPI is a model for scalable, open, and cost-effective AI deployment, fostering innovation and collaboration at every level, and supporting more than 22 languages with over 100 million inferences processed.

How did DeepSeek disrupt the AI industry?

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, developed and open-sourced a frontier AI model for just $6 million, challenging the belief that advanced AI requires massive, centralised resources and making AI more accessible and cost-effective.

What are the key initiatives announced by the Indian government to support AI?

The Indian government has announced the deployment of 18,693 GPUs across its AI ecosystem, measures to reduce computation costs below ₹100 per hour, and the establishment of a data bank for AI, providing high-quality, diverse datasets for research and development.

How does an open AI ecosystem benefit global innovation?

An open AI ecosystem fosters sustained engagement with diverse challenges, shaped by the needs of different socio-economic contexts. It allows AI systems to undergo iterative refinement, becoming more capable, resilient, and broadly applicable as they interact with an ever-changing world.