Provocations on AI Sovereignty: Confronting Complexities & Shaping Future Strategies

Developed from reflections from the workshop, this report explores what digital sovereignty means, assesses its feasibility, examines who benefits from such an agenda, and unpacks the new policy conundrums it raises.

The concept that every country should develop its own AI capabilities is gathering steam globally. Several countries are investing in specialised computational infrastructure and developing national data sovereignty frameworks to ensure their strategic and economic self-reliance.

Yet, the AI sovereignty discourse obscures the substantive political choices that become necessary once the agenda is translated into concrete policy actions.

We need to ask for whom and from whom sovereignty is to be won—does it pit nation-states against one another, or is it about empowering citizens vis-a-vis powerful technology companies?

Equally, is it about boosting a country’s competitiveness in the global AI race or carving out policy space to pursue goals that might lie outside those pursued in the dominant AI paradigm?

With support from Samagata Foundation, in November 2024, we hosted a workshop to explore the debate around AI sovereignty and its implications for India. Along with 18 of the country’s leading thinkers and practitioners, this workshop created a space for first-principles thinking and forward-looking debate through in-depth discussions. Participants included:

• Ankit Bose
• Apar Gupta
• Ajay Shah
• Amlan Mohanty
• Anupam Guha
• Kailash Nadh
• Kalika Bali
• Leslie D’Monte
• Nandana SenGupta
• Nehaa Chaudhari
• Nitin Pai
• Parminder Singh
• Praveen Chandrahas
• Rahul Kulkarni
• Renuka Sane
• Tarunima Prabhakar
• Urvashi Aneja
• Venkatesh Hariharan