(NewsUSA) - The United States and India sit front and center in the global emerging technology competition, and a recent meeting have sparked promising collaboration.

As part of the AI+ Expo in Washington, DC, the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and the Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America) hosted the launch of the U.S.-India AI & Technology Cooperation Dialogue. Both SCSP and ORF America are non-partisan, non-profit organizations.

In the face of increasing global risk from China, partnership between the United States and India in AI development and deployment will impact the balance of economic and strategic power across the Indo-Pacific.

During the Dialogue meeting, U.S. and Indian officials and industry representatives discussed four key elements:

• Applications. AI use case deployments refer to the integration of AI models into real-world solutions such as fraud detection, automating business processes, and personalizing customer experiences. Expanding AI use case deployment in both civilian and military domains will benefit both countries, and partnering with India on deployment of AI applications can meaningfully strengthen both countries’ economic and strategic positioning in third countries, according to SCSP experts.
• Infrastructure. Increasing partnership with India includes securing the building blocks that power AI technologies. India’s demand for data centers, energy resilience, and trusted computing is creating opportunities for American companies to establish computing infrastructure before other competitors. Joint infrastructure gives India the backbone needed for its national AI deployment, and the United States gains a large, strategically-located partner capable of supporting redundant, secure infrastructure routes in the Indo-Pacific.
• Talent. Establishing education to employment pipelines is essential for long-term innovation success. India boasts an enormous pool of young and ambitious engineers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs with the desire to build solutions for global markets. However, both the United States and India need to look beyond elite institutions and tap into broader university systems to provide practical technical training, along with clear pathways to AI and technology careers.
• Policy and AI Governance. A key feature of the U.S./India dialogue meeting was the consensus that AI governance should be based on enabling innovation, rather than prescribing frameworks for development that might suffocate the fast-moving ecosystems of AI development.

“While the United States is exploring deregulation across several technology domains, India has articulated a “light regulation” approach focused on enabling and not constraining startups,” according to the SCSP team.

Both countries highlighted risks of cyber incidents, weak data-quality controls, and unclear cross-border standards impeding AI deployment at scale. Looking ahead, the United States and India can set the tone for a trusted and flexible framework.

Visit scsp.ai to learn more about the SCSP activities and initiatives to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness in AI.