India, July 20 -- Power in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) is being built in chip factories, research labs, data centres and export control lists. The question is no longer whether AI will change the world. It is whether the rules for that world will be written by California's AI firms, Beijing's ministries and regulators in Brussels, or by a wider community that includes countries like India.

AI governance is becoming a contest over access. Building the strongest systems confers power. Increasingly, so does the ability to decide who may use them and on what terms.

On July 6 and 7, the United Nations convened its first global dialogue on AI governance in Geneva. Its value was to give every government a place in a debate that mar...