The Center of Gravity Just Shifted: 5 Surprising Lessons from the India AI Impact Summit 2026

Feb 21, 2026 /Mpelembe media/ — For the past three years, the global conversation surrounding Artificial Intelligence has been dominated by a single, narrow theme: safety. From the  Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit (2023)  to high-level gatherings in  Seoul (2024)  and  Paris (2025) , the focus remained fixed on “existential risk” and theoretical doomsday scenarios. While the West remained paralyzed by the “Alignment Problem,” the Global South has been focused on the “Access Problem.”The  India AI Impact Summit 2026 , held from February 16–21 at  Bharat Mandapam  in New Delhi, decisively shifted the center of gravity. As the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, the event pivoted from speculative risks to  “Applied AI” —technology deployed today to solve real-world problems. Anchored in the philosophical foundation of the  “Three Sutras” (People, Planet, and Progress) , the summit presented a human-centric alternative to the Silicon Valley narrative, prioritizing inclusive development over elite safety debates. Continue reading →