Sitharaman Warns Advanced AI Can Sway Elections

She asked the RBI about 'soft‑touch' rules, urged faster digital‑rupee pilots, and proposed a federated industry platform to give Indian firms a collective voice on cross‑border AI rules.

Overview

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai that large AI models are capable of shaping public opinion and influencing elections without people realising they are being influenced.
She called for stronger accountability and human and institutional oversight for higher‑risk AI uses in finance and other critical sectors, saying regulators and company boards must know where AI is used and what could go wrong.
Sitharaman said she has asked the Reserve Bank of India whether AI can be regulated with a 'soft touch' and urged the RBI to accelerate both wholesale and retail central bank digital currency pilots to support tokenisation experiments.
She proposed creating a federated industry platform to help Indian tech firms negotiate international regulations, share cybersecurity and data practices, and navigate licensing and tax obligations across jurisdictions.
Her remarks cited a recent high‑profile researcher resignation that raised frontier‑AI concerns and pointed to the EU AI Act's transparency rules as a model, while India has also completed a tokenised corporate bond pilot that used the digital rupee for settlement.