Indo-French Bi-lateral cooperation on AI

Interesting to see national bi-lateral cooperation on AI. In the regulatory sphere, India and France commit to sharing expertise and best practices. Coordination in regulatory affairs and shared goals is noted. Indian rules that are consistent with–or at least that share common goals–the GDPR are identified as a goal. The language is interesting when it states that “France and India wish to develop an innovative Digital ecosystem” since that suggests a shared platform,

Much of the business level coordination between the parties can be understood. Regulatory coordination is harder to comprehend. Will the parties draft similar legislation? What if an Indian position on AI regulation is inconsistent with European Union positions?

Nonetheless, if there is strong business coordination, consistent regulatory positions would be a boon. Indeed, consistent regulatory positions may simply follow from the commercial cooperation. Argentina enacted privacy law provisions consistent with the GDPR. This of course would have the effect of making commerce between it and other GDPR countries easier to navigate for companies operating in those jursidictions. Will agreements such as this between India and France lead to similar replication of regulatory positions? It is hard to imagine that at the end of the day a state could operate easily with commercial regulations affecting AI that are wildly different from those in other major jurisdictions.