India, March 17 -- The AI economy is often discussed through the language of scale, speed, and supremacy. But beneath the race for models, chips, and market share lies a harder question: who gets to shape this future, and who merely inherits it? For countries like India, that question is no longer abstract. It is tied to language, culture, trust, data sovereignty, and the right to build AI systems that reflect local realities rather than imported assumptions. In a conversation with Dataquest, Reggie Townsend, Vice President, AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact at SAS, lays out why responsible AI must go beyond compliance rhetoric and become a more practical framework for fairness, accountability, and shared value.

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