AI Safety Connect at India Impact Summit
FEBRUARY 2026
AI Safety Connect at the India AI Impact Summit 2026
February 2026 | New Delhi, India
AI Safety Connect convened over 600 senior leaders across three events during the India AI Impact Summit, the first major global AI summit hosted in the Global South. Programming addressed how middle powers and Global Majority states can move from inheriting AI safety standards to actively shaping them, and how industry, governments, and civil society can close the coordination gap in frontier AI safety.
PAST EVENT
AI Safety Connect Day | Wednesday 18 February,
The Imperial Hotel, New Delhi
AI Safety Connect Day brought together approximately 250 senior stakeholders from governments, international organisations, frontier AI companies, civil society, and academia for a full day of panels, workshops, and live demonstrations of AI safety tools.
Netherlands Prime Minister Dick Schoof delivered a special address on the role of middle powers in AI governance. The programme also featured contributions from Turing Award laureate Yoshua Bengio, former India G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, Lucilla Sioli (Director, European AI Office), Eileen Donahoe (Sympatico Ventures), Andrew Forrest (Minderoo Foundation), and Stuart Russell (IASEAI), alongside senior representatives from Microsoft, Google DeepMind, Amazon Web Services, the OECD, UNESCO, the Partnership on AI, and the Frontier Model Forum.
Nine panel sessions explored: the trajectory of frontier AI systems, the global AI risk agenda, loss of control scenarios, industry safety efforts, middle powers and AI governance, India's approach to AI, and cross-border coordination mechanisms. Parallel workshop tracks addressed AI risk modelling and red lines for AI, while a dedicated demonstration room showcased practical AI safety tools and solutions.
AI Safety Connect Day was co-hosted with the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI) and supported by Minderoo Foundation, Future of Life Institute, Sympatico, and the AI Safety Tactical Opportunities Fund.
PAST EVENT
Shared Responsibility: Industry and the Future of AI Safety | Thursday 19 February, The Imperial Hotel, New Delhi
Co-hosted with DGA Group, this evening programme convened senior industry leaders for focused panel discussions on how the private sector can help shape frontier AI safety practices, norms, and standards.
The event took place hours after India's Minister of Electronics and IT unveiled the New Delhi Frontier AI Commitments at the main Summit. Opening remarks from Honourable Minister Shri Duddilla Sridhar Babu and Shri Sanjay Kumar of Telangana positioned India's states as active participants in building AI governance infrastructure.
Panel 1, Deciding at the Frontier, explored how advanced AI systems are deployed and governed in practice, featuring senior leaders from ServiceNow, Mastercard, and Google DeepMind. It was moderated by Amlan Mohanty (Carnegie India).
Panel 2, Governing Frontier AI for Secure Deployment, addressed interoperable standards in a fragmented regulatory landscape, with representatives from Anthropic, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, the Frontier Model Forum, and the U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation. It was moderated by Paul Triolo (DGA Group).
The programme was followed by an evening reception.
PAST EVENT
International AI Safety Coordination: What Policymakers Need to Know | Friday 20 February, Bharat Mandapam, Room 6, New Delhi
AI Safety Connect's final event was an official session within the India AI Impact Summit programme, providing a ministerial-level briefing on where coordination on frontier AI safety is most urgently needed and what policymakers should prioritise now.
Moderated by Dr Eileen Donahoe (Sympatico Ventures, former US Special Envoy for Digital Freedom), the panel brought together OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, Singapore Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, Malaysia Minister of Digital Gobind Singh Deo, World Bank Vice-President for Digital and AI Sangbu Kim, and Jaan Tallinn (Skype, Future of Life Institute).
Opening remarks from Professor Stuart Russell (IASEAI) and closing reflections from Osama Manzar (Digital Empowerment Foundation).
Co-organised with the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI) and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF). The session contributed to the India AI Impact Summit's Chakra 3 (Safe and Trusted AI) and Chakra 6 (Democratising AI Resources).
Watch the full session here.
These events featured speakers including:
H.E. Dick Schoof
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
H.E Josephine Teo
Minister for Digital Development and Information of Singapore
Secretary General Mathias Cormann
Secretary-General of the OECD
H.E. Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard
Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Denmark
Dr. Gabriela Ramos
Co-Chair of the Task Force on Inequalities and Social Financial Disclosure & Former Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO
Mr. Sangbu Kim
World Bank's Vice President for Digital
Prof. Stuart Russell
Director, The International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI)
Prof. Yoshua Bengio
Scientific Director, LawZero
Mr. Jaan Tallinn
AI Investor & Founding Engineer, of Skype and Kazaa; co-founder, Future of Life Institute
Dr. Renata Dwan
Director, Tech Policy, Simon Institute
Dr. Chinmay Pandya
Pro Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University
Mr. Chris Meserole
Executive Director at the Frontier Model Forum
Mr. Ashish Tewari
Head — Responsible AI Office, Infosys
Dr. Adam Gleave
CEO, FAR.AI
Mr. Amlan Mohanty
Fellow, Carnegie India & Lead Writer, India AI Governance Guidelines
Mr. Austin Mayron
Acting Director of the U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation
Prof. Balaraman Ravindran
Director, Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras India
Mr. Bruno Galizzi
Senior Policy Associate, SaferAI
Dr. Chloé Touzet
Policy Lead, SaferAI
Mr. Christian Troncoso
Principal, Global AI Policy at Amazon Web Services
Mr. Connor Dunlop
Director of Strategy, Lucid Computing
Mr. Cyrus Hodes
Co-Founder, AI Safety Connect
Ms. Denise Wong
Assistant Chief Executive, Data Protection and Innovation Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore.
Dr. Eileen Donahoe
Former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom & Ambassador to the UNHRC; Founder and Managing Partner, Sympatico Ventures
Ms. Imane Bello
Multilateral Engagement Lead, Future of Life Institute
Baroness Joanna Shields
Executive Chairman, Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF)
Prof. Kee-Eung Kim
Director, National AI Research Lab of Korea
Ms. Gaia Marcus
Director, Ada Lovelace Institute
Dr. Mark Nitzberg
Interim Executive Director, IASEAI
Ms. Natasha Crampton
Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft
Mr. Nicolas Miailhe
Co-Founder, AI Safety Connect
Ms. Nicole Foster
Director of Global Affairs at Amazon Web Services
Ms. Niki Iliadis
Director Global AI Governance, The Future Society
Mr. Owen Larter
Senior Director and Head of Frontier Policy and Public Affairs at Google DeepMind
Mr. Paul Triolo
Partner, China and Technology Policy Lead at DGA Group
Ms. Pauline Charazac
Head of Policy Engagement, CeSIA
Prof. Pulkit Verma
Assistant Professor, IIT Madras and Fellow, Secure AI Futures Lab
Stephanie Ifayemi
Senior Managing Director of Policy, Partnership on AI
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury
CEO and Founder, Humane Intelligence
Prof. Sarah Erfani
Professor, University of Melbourne
Dr. Carina Prunkl
Researcher, INRIA (Regalia); Lead Writer, 2026 International AI Safety Report
Prof. Robert Trager
Co-Director, Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
Ms. Lucilla Sioli
Director of the European AI Office, European Commission
Ms. Terah Lyons
Managing Director & Global Head of AI & Data Policy at JPMorgan Chase
Mr. Stephen Clare
Lead Writer, International Safety Report
Mr. Amitabh Kant
Former India G20 Sherpa & Former CEO of NITI Aayog
Mr. Frederic Werner
Chief, Strategic Engagement, International Telecommunications Union
Dr. Urvashi Aneja
Founder & Director, Digital Futures Lab
Ms. Karine Perset
Deputy Head of AI and Emerging Digital Technologies Division, OECD.AI, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Dr. Mariagrazia Squicciarini
Chief of Executive Office, Social and Human Sciences Sector, UNESCO
Prof. Hemant Bhargava
Distinguished Professor, UC Davis
Mr. Osama Manzar
Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation
Mr. Robert Opp
Chief, Strategic Engagement, International Chief Digital Officer, United Nations Development Programme
Prof. Yannis Ioannidis
President of the Association for Computing Machinery
Supported by Minderoo Foundation, the Future of Life Institute, Sympatico, and AISTOF, these events will help us advance our mission: strengthening the channels for coordination before a crisis forces our hand.
