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In an interview with CNN-News18, Luciana Santos also explained why summits like the one in Delhi matter, saying they help create political momentum to democratize access to AI.
Luciana Santos, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Brazil. (x)
As New Delhi hosts the AI Impact Summit from February 16-21, global leaders have gathered in India to debate one defining question: Who shapes the future of Artificial Intelligence, and on whose terms? The players also include Brazil, underscoring a growing Global South effort to reclaim agency in emerging technologies. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is also in India this week, signaling how AI, technology partnerships and digital sovereignty have become central to Brasília’s strategic engagement with New Delhi.
Against this backdrop, CNN-News18 spoke to Luciana Santos, Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, who explained that Brazil sees India not just as a partner, but as a co-shaper of a more inclusive AI order, where innovation is guided by the public interest, democratic governance and the realities of the global South, rather than the dominance of a few powerful players.
Edited excerpts:
Brazil often speaks of AI as a tool for social inclusion, yet large parts of the Global South remain data-poor and compute-poor. How does Brazil realistically prevent AI from deepening inequality rather than reducing it?
The risk that artificial intelligence could deepen inequality is real, especially when much of the Global South still faces structural gaps in data availability, computing infrastructure and skilled human capital. Brazil’s response is to treat AI not just as a technology push, but as a national development project rooted in social inclusion and digital sovereignty.
This approach underpins Brazil’s AI Plan 2024-2028, supported by €23 billion (about $4.4 billion) in public investment, of which about 30 percent has already been deployed. The focus has largely been on tackling the structural drivers of inequality.
From building state-of-the-art, renewable-powered supercomputing infrastructure to developing Portuguese-language AI models trained on Brazil’s own diverse data, the aim is to reduce external dependencies and avoid imported biases.
Equally central is large-scale training and re-skilling, along with the strategic use of AI in public services to improve delivery, especially in social sectors.
Brazil believes that inclusion will not come from innovation on its own. It should be designed through public investment, local capacity-building and democratic governance, so that the benefits from AI are widely shared, and not concentrated in a few areas.
India is positioning itself as an AI bridge between the West and the global South. Does Brazil see India as a genuine partner in shaping alternative AI models, or is the Global South still largely reacting to rules set elsewhere?
Brazil clearly sees India as a strategic partner. The major democracies of the Global South face similar structural challenges, so both countries share the responsibility to advance scientific and technological progress for the public good.
Rather than adopt rules set elsewhere, Brazil and India are well placed to shape their own agenda based on democracy, sustainable development and social inclusion.
This is already taking shape through partnerships between Brazilian and Indian AI centres, including a pilot project on secure, privacy-preserving cross-border data collaboration for medical AI. Using India’s Data Empowerment and Security Architecture, AI models can be trained without raw data, leaving the sovereign control of data providers.
Strong collaboration also boosts our collective voice in the global AI governance debate, pushing for frameworks that reflect the realities of the Global South, not just the priorities of major technological powers.
This is why summits like this on the global impact of AI matter. They generate political momentum to democratize access to AI and accelerate its development in the Global South.
Therefore, the Global South does not need to be reactive. Deeper strategic cooperation strengthens our ability to propose, negotiate and build a more balanced and inclusive international AI governance.
Brazil has taken a strict regulatory stance on Big Tech compared to many emerging economies. Are you concerned that strict AI regulation could slow down innovation, or do you believe that unregulated innovation is the bigger risk right now?
We start from a simple premise: the real question is not whether to regulate or innovate, but how to regulate in a way that enables sustainable and trustworthy innovation.
As AI becomes more widespread, the need for strong governance has increased. Clear rules are needed to guide the development, deployment, and use of AI in a safe, ethical, and transparent manner, so its benefits truly serve society. Without them, risks such as algorithmic discrimination or violations of fundamental rights could erode public trust and, over time, even undermine innovation.
Brazil has therefore called for a balanced approach. Its AI bill, approved by the Senate in December 2024 and now before the Chamber of Deputies, adopts a risk-based framework that prioritizes users’ rights and participatory governance. Strict obligations are focused on high-risk systems, while low-risk applications are protected from unnecessary burden, preserving room for experimentation and new entrants.
To reinforce this framework, a supplementary bill sent in December 2025 proposes the creation of a Brazilian AI Council as well as a national system for the development, regulation and governance of AI. By bringing together national data protection authorities and key regulators, the model aims to provide the coordination, predictability and regulatory clarity needed for investment and innovation.
Much of Brazil’s AI ecosystem still relies on foreign cloud infrastructure and imported chips. Can Brazil claim AI sovereignty without control over critical computers and semiconductors, and what lessons does it draw from India’s struggle over chip manufacturing?
Around the world, countries are increasingly debating what digital sovereignty means in their own national contexts. A widely shared view defines it as the ability to understand how digital technologies work, develop them, and regulate them effectively.
From this perspective, sovereignty is not created through isolation, but through strong technological autonomy achieved through openness, cooperation, and domestic capacity-building. In this context, India is emerging as a strategic partner for Brazil, expanding opportunities for technology exchange, joint innovation and solutions in line with national priorities, especially in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, Internet of Things, blockchain and advanced communications such as 5G and 6G.
Brazil is also taking a strategic approach to strengthening its semiconductor ecosystem, focusing on scientific development, skills training and deeper integration into global value chains through strong workforce programs and incentives to expand the semiconductor supply chain.
Also, under Brazil’s AI plan, the country is building a national public sector data infrastructure, which includes sovereign cloud systems developed through partnerships between public data companies and multiple cloud providers. These arrangements are designed to ensure digital sovereignty, transparency, control, trust and cyber security.
As the BRICS shifts its focus to technology cooperation, do you see scope for a BRICS-led AI framework that challenges Western-dominated governance models, or are the internal differences so wide that they are not possible to bridge?
Brazil is an active participant in several multilateral forums on AI governance, consistently emphasizing the need to promote AI for the benefit of all people, nations, living beings and the planet. The approach is multi-stakeholder by design, bringing together governments, the private sector, academia and civil society.
Within BRICS, member states have pursued this approach through debates and conferences, with the aim of building consensus while respecting each country’s diversity and specific national realities.
During Brazil’s BRICS presidency, the bloc discussed and adopted a Declaration on AI Governance and Principles for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, which clearly outlined areas of shared interest. The Brazilian leadership took an important step towards consensus building and further laid the groundwork for in-depth discussions within BRICS.
Finally, from your perspective at the summit, what has been the most encouraging moment that you have seen here – and what is the most inconvenient truth about the Global South’s AI ambitions that leaders are still reluctant to admit?
I find it encouraging to see the Global South leading a complex process like an AI summit and agenda. This is not only possible, but also necessary. Yet we are still heavily dependent on platforms, models and infrastructure controlled by a handful of countries and companies.
Without strategic collaboration, long-term investment, and collective dialogue, AI runs a real risk of reproducing the same technological inequalities of the past. When a few actors control algorithms and digital infrastructure, it is no longer innovation, it is dominance.
Developing countries cannot remain mere consumers of technology. They must build their capabilities through technology transfer, talent development and sovereign infrastructure.
February 21, 2026, 16:14 IST
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