Trace the evolution of global AI governance summits from Bletchley Park (2023) to New Delhi (2026). How has the framing shifted from existential risk to real-world harms?

Q. Trace the evolution of global AI governance summits from Bletchley Park (2023) to New Delhi (2026). How has the framing shifted from existential risk to real-world harms? (15 marks, 250-350 words)

The four-summit arc — Bletchley (2023), Seoul (2024), Paris (2025), New Delhi (2026) — records a steady migration of global AI governance from speculative, frontier-model catastrophe towards present-day questions of access, equity and developmental impact.

Bletchley 2023: the existential-risk frame - The Bletchley Declaration, signed by 28 countries and the EU, centred on "frontier AI" and the potential for "serious, even catastrophic, harm", especially misuse and loss of control [1]. - Concerns were framed around cybersecurity, biotechnology and disinformation — hazards of capability, not of distribution [1].

Seoul 2024: institutionalising safety - The Seoul agenda widened the triad to safety, innovation and inclusivity, adding transparency and risk-management commitments from frontier developers [2]. - A network of national AI Safety Institutes was seeded, converting declaratory concern into scientific machinery [2].

Paris 2025: from safety to action - Renamed the AI Action Summit and co-chaired by France and India, it produced a statement on inclusive and sustainable AI for people and the planet, signed by 62 countries — prioritising digital divides, openness and sustainability [3]. - Notably, the US and UK declined to sign, exposing the safety-versus-acceleration cleavage [3].

New Delhi 2026: real-world harms and the Global South - The first such summit hosted in the Global South, organised by MeitY around three sutras — People, Planet, Progress [4]. - The New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact, endorsed by 92 countries and organisations, rests on human capital, social empowerment, trustworthiness, energy efficiency, AI for science, democratised compute and economic good — a harms-and-benefits agenda, not a doom agenda [5]. - UN Secretary-General Guterres anchored the equity turn by proposing a $3 billion global fund for skills, data and affordable compute in developing countries [6].

The shift reflects both maturing evidence — everyday harms like bias, job displacement and data asymmetry proved more immediate than machine takeover — and the entry of developing-country voices. Sustaining it requires that New Delhi's commitments translate into financed compute access, consistent with the Global Digital Compact and SDG-9.

(~320 words)

Sources: 1. The Bletchley Declaration, AI Safety Summit, 1–2 November 2023 (GOV.UK) — frontier-AI framing, catastrophic-harm language, 28 countries + EU 2. Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science, AI Seoul Summit 2024 (GOV.UK) — safety–innovation–inclusivity triad, safety institute network 3. Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet, AI Action Summit, Paris, 11 February 2025 (Élysée) — France–India co-chairing, 62 signatories, inclusion and sustainability priorities 4. India AI Impact Summit 2026: Landmark Global Declaration and Major AI Investment Commitments (PIB) — first Global South summit, MeitY as host, People–Planet–Progress sutras 5. More countries join the New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact (PIB) — 92 endorsements, seven pillars of the Declaration 6. From India, Guterres calls for $3 billion fund to ensure AI benefits all (UN News, February 2026) — proposed global AI fund for skills, data and compute access