NEW DELHI, India: India is hosting an artificial intelligence summit this week, drawing heads of state, senior officials and technology executives to New Delhi for a five-day gathering that underscores the technology's rising global influence.

Organizers said the India AI Impact Summit is the first such event to be held in the Global South to discuss a technology largely developed and dominated by wealthy companies in advanced economies. The meeting comes at a pivotal moment as AI rapidly transforms economies, reshapes labor markets and raises complex questions around regulation, security and ethics.

From generative AI tools capable of producing text and images to advanced systems deployed in defense, health care and climate modeling, artificial intelligence has become a central priority for governments and corporations worldwide.

Previously hosted in France, the United Kingdom and South Korea, the summit has expanded significantly from its early focus on the safety of cutting-edge AI systems. It has since evolved into a broad-based trade fair and policy forum where safety is just one of many themes.

India, the world's most populous nation and one of the fastest-growing digital markets, views the summit as an opportunity to position itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South.

Officials say India's experience building large-scale digital public infrastructure, including digital identity and payment platforms, offers a model for deploying AI at scale while keeping costs down.

"The goal is clear: AI should be used for shaping humanity, inclusive growth and a sustainable future," India's Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

The summit began on Monday and is being attended by 20 heads of state and government, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a session on Thursday.

Executives attending include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft President Brad Smith and AMI Labs Executive Chairman Yann LeCun.

India is aiming to attract as much as $200 billion in investments for data centers over the next few years as it expands its ambitions to become a global AI hub, the electronics and IT minister said Tuesday.

Those potential investments highlight the reliance of major technology companies on India as a key source of technology and talent in the race for AI leadership. For New Delhi, they represent high-value infrastructure and foreign capital that could accelerate its broader digital transformation goals.

The push comes as governments worldwide seek to tap AI's economic promise while confronting concerns over job displacement, regulation and the concentration of computing power in a small number of countries and corporations.