India, Aug. 27 -- India's conversation about Artificial Intelligence (AI) is dominated by two questions: How many jobs will it destroy and by how much can AI raise productivity especially in our large informal economy? Both matter. But a third question may matter more: What happens when the people closest to India's biggest unsolved problems get direct access to AI, not just AI products?

In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, American author and columnist Kimberley Strassel described Silicon Valley's obsession with AI abundance, then asked a profound question: Abundance for whom, and who decides? Her point wasn't about redistributing AI's gains. It was about which problems get chosen to be solved in the first place. She pointed to eviden...