While adjusting to the new normal of COVID-19, the aim of the GeoTech Center’s India endeavor was twofold. Focusing on the domestic domain, we partnered with the International Innovation Corps (University of Chicago Trust) and organized a digital roundtable on the applications of AI and other emerging technologies in the country’s health sector. To broaden our perspective and also address the global dimension, we furthermore partnered with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and organized a second roundtable on “China, India, and the geopolitics of emerging technologies” two weeks later.

The roundtable was part of the GeoTech Center’s Smart Partnership Series, led at the time by Mathew Burrows and Julian Mueller-Kaler, to analyze how AI is changing societies, to evaluate China’s role as a global citizen, and to look at how middle and low income countries can leverage technology for good. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, endeavors started in 2019 with meetings in Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, where discussions centered around the development of artificial intelligence and its implications for geopolitics. In January 2020 and only weeks before the novel Coronavirus changed the world, the project continued with meetings in Beijing and Shanghai, focused on the domestic factors of China’s use of modern technologies. While trips to India and Rwanda were scheduled for the spring of 2020, roundtables had to be moved online, given COVID-19’s disruptive effect.

Read the full recap at The Atlantic Council.