In this episode of The Great Tech Game Podcast, Anirudh sits down with Amitabh Kant, India's former G20 Sherpa and former CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside Wilson White, Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google Asia-Pacific.
The relationship between governments and Big Tech is growing more precarious by the day, even as the two become increasingly interdependent. One would assume their larger interests to be aligned in service of society, but it's growing harder to tell if they're fundamentally at odds. And so as AI becomes a strategic asset, where does corporate power end and state control begin?
We start with how these two central actors respond to a crisis as significant as Iran: Google's shift toward operational resilience, and governments' focus on securing supply chain stability. From there, we widen the lens to the global AI race and India's positioning within it: where its strengths lie, and what it can learn from examples elsewhere in the world.
We explore:
- What distinguishes how governments and Big Tech firms like Google respond to a global crisis like Iran?
- Is India really a 'loser' in the AI race, as many argue, or does that framing limit how we think about AI's possibilities more holistically?
- What steps do firms like Google take to ensure AI readiness?
- In a world built on global interoperability and mutual learning, what does the idea of Sovereign AI really mean, and how should we view it through a wider lens?
- What are the critical gaps in India's AI ecosystem that need urgent attention, and where do its unique strengths lie?
- Finally, what lessons can India draw from other countries across the APAC region?
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---Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
3:38 - How India and Google Handled the Iran Crisis
10:47 - What do India and Google Need to Power AI
14:44 - Assessing India's AI Ecosystem
21:40 - India's Critical Gaps and Unique Strengths
25:48 - Lessons India Can Learn from APAC
29:14 - How Can Big Tech Help India Achieve Its AI Ambitions?
37:01 - Will Access to Frontier Models Be a Problem for India?
41:28 -The Myth of Sovereign AI
46:17 - Rapid Fire Round
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About the Guests:
Amitabh Kant is one of India's most influential policymakers, having served as the CEO of NITI Aayog and India's G20 Sherpa. Over a four-decade career in public service, he has led several of the country's most ambitious reform initiatives, including Make in India, Startup India, and the Aspirational Districts Programme.
Wilson White is Google's Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy, based in Singapore, where he leads the company's engagement with governments and regulators across Asia-Pacific while also overseeing global policy efforts for several core product areas.
About Anirudh Suri, Host of the Podcast:Anirudh Suri is a non-resident scholar with Carnegie India, where his research and writing focus on technology, artificial intelligence and geopolitics. He is the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, and host of The Great Tech Game Podcast. He is also the Managing Partner at India Internet Fund, a US and India based technology-focused venture capital fund.
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