Making AI for Everyone: Event Highlights

Making AI for Everyone

Event Highlights

Kalpa Impact in collaboration with Current AI and Bhashini hosted a live demo of a prototype and two fireside chats at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

The event, titled “Making AI for Everyone: The Case for Personal, Local, Multilingual AI”, was a key event held at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, at Bharat Mandapam, on 20 February.

With over 200 people in attendance, including senior government officials, philanthropic leadership, AI builders and deployers represented through the growing Indian AI impact startup community, and civil society voices, the event signalled India’s growing momentum in open source AI hardware.

A live demonstration of the prototype offered a glimpse into what personal, local AI could look like in practice. As Sushant Kumar, Founder and CEO at Kalpa Impact, noted, “The most powerful aspect of the device is that all AI processing happens offline, directly on the device, which makes the range of possible use cases for this technology limitless.”
Ayah Bdeir, CEO of Current AI, added, “The goal is to enable people to build AI that works for themselves, their communities, and their languages. This prototype is not the end product, but the beginning of a journey and a platform for infinite possibilities.”

Fireside Chat 1: Voices Without Borders: Building the Future of Multilingual AI

The first fireside chat explored the systemic gaps in global AI design and development. Moderated by Sushant Kumar – Founder and CEO at Kalpa Impact, the panel featured Ayah Bdeir – CEO, Current AI, and Shri Amitabh Nag – CEO, Bhashini. It surfaced challenging questions around AI inclusion, and contemplated concerns of disproportionate AI progress and value creation, particularly for non-English speakers. Multilingual AI emerged as a key connector for users across Global South countries, and an imperative for future public interest technologies.

As Shri Amitabh Nag emphasised, “Language begins with identity and lived experience, and inclusion in AI begins with inclusion in language. Building AI for diverse languages required creating datasets from scratch, and this is a step towards that.”

Fireside Chat 2: How Can AI Preserve Culture?

The second fireside chat shifted focus to the role of governments and public institutions in both catalysing funding and stewarding AI developments in a way that preserves diversity and culture. Moderated by Martin Tisné – Founder and Chair of the board, Current AI, the panel featured Shri. Abhishek Singh – Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; CEO, India AI Mission, and Anne Bouverot – France’ Special Envoy for AI – Government of France.

The conversation engaged with some important questions, such as what real reciprocity should look like when big technology companies benefit from cultural data, and explored how we might move towards data models that co create value with communities rather than extract from them. The discussion also surfaced the importance of policy guardrails and cross border collaboration in shaping AI ecosystems that reflect pluralism and scale.

As Martin Tisné noted, “Growing up in France, there were policies requiring a share of radio music and films to be in French, an approach that helped keep the culture visible and alive. As AI evolves, we may need similar mechanisms, if not norms, to ensure it reflects and preserves cultural diversity rather than flattening it.”

Shri Abhishek Singh highlighted the importance of usability and impact, stating, “The true measure of AI is not the technology, but the value it delivers to users. Simple, intuitive AI interactions can be deeply empowering. The ultimate goal is to make AI work for everyone.”

Anne Bouverot added a global perspective, noting, “Defaulting AI to a single cultural lens risks erasing global diversity. AI should go beyond national identity and reflect deeper cultural nuance.”