India, Feb. 19 -- When Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood before leaders from more than 100 countries at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, he was not merely launching a framework. He was attempting to reset the global conversation on artificial intelligence (AI)-and doing so from the Global South.

Calling AI a transformation comparable to the discovery of fire, the invention of script and the advent of wireless communication, Modi framed this moment as civilisational rather than technological. "Artificial Intelligence represents a transformation of the same magnitude as historic turning points in human civilisation," he said, warning that the shift is unfolding at "unprecedented speed and unexpected scale."

And that framing matte...