New Delhi, Feb. 6 -- It is welcome that India is gearing up to take on the challenge of artificial intelligence (AI). This technology is vital not just in its generative avatar, which has caught the public imagination ever since ChatGPT's 2022 debut, but also in multifarious forms that will fundamentally alter our notion of productivity.

Economies that deploy AI across the board would undergo a step change in their global competitiveness. Unlike earlier advances in information technology, whose national origin did not materially affect the ability of people and companies anywhere to use them, AI is seen as an enabler of geopolitical power.

Bars are in place, denying others access not just to its algorithms, but also other key secrets he...