Echoes from New Delhi

The Dawn of a Truly Inclusive AI Era: Echoes from New Delhi

By;

Yayasan Pendidikan Indonesia

Special consultative status in ECOSOC

United Nations

Introduction.

In a historic address delivered at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi — the first major global AI gathering hosted in the Global South — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a powerful and urgent message that resonates deeply with our mission at Yayasan Pendidikan Indonesia.

“The future of artificial intelligence cannot be decided by a handful of countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires,” Guterres declared.

These words are more than rhetoric; they are a clarion call for equity, inclusion, and shared responsibility in an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping education, economies, societies, and human potential at unprecedented speed.

The Explosive Pace of AI Advancement.

The rapid development of AI has been nothing short of breathtaking. In just the past 24 months:

• Multimodal foundation models now rival or surpass human-level performance in language understanding, image generation, scientific reasoning, and even complex problem-solving.

• Open-weight and proprietary large language models have proliferated, with new releases occurring almost monthly.

• AI agents capable of autonomous task execution — from research to software development to personalized tutoring — are moving from labs to everyday tools.

• National AI strategies have surged: over 80 countries now have dedicated AI policies, yet massive disparities persist in compute access, talent pools, data sovereignty, and infrastructure.

This acceleration brings immense promise — personalized learning for millions of students, accelerated drug discovery, climate modeling at finer resolutions, and tools to bridge educational divides in remote and underserved communities. Yet it also amplifies risks: widening digital divides, job displacement without adequate reskilling, biases embedded in global systems, misuse in misinformation or autonomous weapons, and concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants and superpowers.

Why This Moment Matters to Indonesia and the Global South.

Indonesia, with its young population of over 270 million — the world’s fourth most populous nation and one of its most digitally connected — stands at the crossroads. Our students, teachers, entrepreneurs, and civil society organizations are already experimenting with AI tools for adaptive learning, Bahasa Indonesia language models, agricultural optimization, disaster response, and creative industries.

But without deliberate, inclusive global architecture, the benefits of AI could bypass the majority of humanity. As Guterres warned, many countries risk being “logged out” of the AI age due to lack of access to high-performance computing, quality datasets, skilled talent, and ethical frameworks.

That is why the Secretary-General’s proposal for a new Global Fund on AI — starting with a modest yet symbolic target of $3 billion (less than 1% of the annual revenue of some leading tech companies) — is both pragmatic and visionary. Such a fund could:

• Build foundational AI capacity in developing nations

• Support open, multilingual datasets and models

• Fund teacher training and curriculum integration of AI literacy

• Promote ethical AI research focused on sustainable development goals

Yayasan Pendidikan Indonesia, through our ECOSOC platform, stands ready to contribute to this multilateral effort — advocating for education as the cornerstone of equitable AI adoption.

Our Commitment: Education as the Ultimate AI Equalizer.

At YPI, we believe education is not just another sector impacted by AI — it is the primary mechanism through which humanity can shape AI to serve all people, not merely the powerful few.

We call on:

• Indonesian policymakers to accelerate national AI education strategies that prioritize digital literacy, critical thinking about AI, and ethical awareness from early childhood through higher education.

• Educators and schools to integrate AI responsibly — using it as a tool to personalize learning, reduce administrative burdens, and foster creativity rather than replace human connection.

• Civil society, private sector, and international partners to collaborate on inclusive initiatives: scholarships for AI talent from underrepresented regions, open educational resources powered by ethical AI, and community-driven projects that reflect Indonesia’s rich cultural and linguistic diversity.

The future of AI must not be a story written in Silicon Valley boardrooms or Beijing laboratories alone. It must be co-authored by voices from Jakarta, Nairobi, São Paulo, New Delhi, and every corner of the world.

As Secretary-General Guterres so eloquently reminded us in New Delhi: AI must belong to everyone.

Yayasan Pendidikan Indonesia reaffirms its dedication to this vision — ensuring that Indonesia’s youth are not merely users of artificial intelligence, but active shapers of a humane, inclusive, and sustainable intelligent future.

Together, let us build that future — one learner, one ethical innovation, one collaborative step at a time.

Yayasan Pendidikan Indonesia

Advocating for equitable, quality education in the age of artificial intelligence