‘Gyan Kumbh’ of AI: Faith & future collide in Haridwar

HAridwar force seem far removed from the centres of world(a) power. In time, saints, researchers, policymakers and technologists gathered hither on Tuesday for the “Faith & Future - Integrating AI with Spirituality” conference.“AI is concentrating power in a tiny handful of people - three or four companies basically,” William Jones of the Future of Life Institute (FLI) told HT. “It’s unfair that opportunities are being controlled and pushed in that direction. We need to think more carefully about involving more people in this discussion.” Jones warned that this is exactly what is happening, leaving the rest of the world without a real say.The conference, which discussed at length the boons and banes of AI and how to democratize this technology, was organized by Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (DSVV) in collaboration with FLI. The gathering was the 21st pre-summit event leading up to the AI Impact Summit in India in February 2026. Present at the conference were Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, India AI Mission CEO Abhishek Singh, and prominent stakeholders from 22 countries.The conference reflected both hopes and anxieties around AI, ranging from deepfakes to human rights, disinformation, and regulation. Echoing his own state’s anxieties, the Uttarakhand CM cited the recent heavy rainfall in Dehradun that triggered landslides and damaged infrastructure, alongside the shrinking number of hot days in the state. He stressed the role of AI in understanding the impacts of global warming. Comparing the event to the Maha Kumbh by calling it “Gyan Kumbh”, he said AI has the power to transform the lives of billions if used wisely.FLI, the event’s partner, has long engaged with similar kinds of risks associated with technologies including nuclear tech and biotech. In 2023, it famously published an open letter urging AI labs to pause the development of models more powerful than GPT-4, a call signed by over 33,000 people, including Elon Musk, prominent AI researcher Yoshua Bengio and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.“We would like to think that it (open letter) at least shaped the conversation,” Jones told HT. “Some of the things Geoffrey Hinton has warned about, we can still steer away from.” Hinton, one of the “godfathers” of AI, quit Google in 2023 to warn about the risks of the technology, from mass misinformation to the disruption of job markets. Hinton had also emphasised the need for strong guardrails, a concern that echoed at the Haridwar gathering.India has, time and again, made it clear that it would give weightage to innovation over regulation. Echoing the government’s thoughts on the regulatory front, India AI Mission CEO Abhishek Singh told HT that the government is working on a framework for responsible AI. “We don’t believe the time is right for heavy regulation, but we are working on guardrails,” Singh told HT. “Just as cars need licenses, permits and traffic rules to ensure safety, AI too must have safeguards. If it is to move fast in healthcare, education, skilling and agriculture, we must also prevent misuse, whether through deepfakes, misinformation or financial risks. As with cars, to move fast, you need good brakes.”Why India? FLI’s Jones said the choice was deliberate to host this conference in the country. Not only because of India’s growing weight in AI, but also because it is the birthplace of Hinduism. “We are strategic about where we devote our time,” he told HT. “From the faith side, we want to engage with all major world religions. We’ve worked with churches in the US, the Vatican, and with Christian and Muslim leaders in Africa.”