Beyond Superintelligence: A Realist's Guide to AI

More from Interpreting India

1. 

   S4 · E31 · 16 Oct 2025 · 48 min

   Unbundling AI Openness: Beyond the Binary

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Shruti Mittal, research analyst in the Technology and Society Program at Carnegie India, speaks with Chinmayi Sharma, associate professor of law at Fordham Law School and nonresident fellow at the Stoss Center, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Atlantic Council. Together, they explore the evolving and often misunderstood debate on openness in artificial intelligence. Drawing from her forthcoming paper, Unbundling AI Openness, in the Wisconsin Law Review, Sharma explains why the traditional “open versus closed” framing oversimplifies…

2. 

   S4 · E30 · 18 Sep 2025 · 50 min

   India’s Air Defense After Operation Sindoor: Lessons and the Road Ahead

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Dinakar Peri is joined by Air Marshal (Retd.) Diptendu Choudhury, former Commandant of the National Defence College. Together, they unpack the evolution of India’s multilayered air defense network, tracing their journey from limited radar coverage in the 1960s to today’s multilayered, integrated network capable of projecting power into adversarial airspace. The discussion highlights how offensive and defensive air power work in tandem, lessons from Operation Sindoor, the growing challenges posed by drones, missiles, and cost-effectiveness, and the…

3. 

   S4 · E29 · 28 Aug 2025 · 55 min

   Military AI and Autonomous Weapons: Gender, Ethics, and Governance

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Charukeshi Bhatt is joined by Shimona Mohan, associate researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). Together, they unpack the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in the military domain, with a special focus on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). The discussion traces how AI’s dual-use nature complicates governance, highlights the risks of bias and miscalculation, and explores why progress in international negotiations has been slow despite nearly a decade of debate.

4. 

   S4 · E27 · 26 Jun 2025 · 56 min

   Navigating the Open v. Closed Source AI Debate with Kailash Nadh

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Shruti Mittal is joined by Kailash Nadh, chief technology officer of Zerodha and co-founder of FOSS United, to provide a technologist’s perspective on one of the most consequential debates shaping the future of artificial intelligence: the open versus closed source AI debate. Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving AI landscape, this conversation examines risks, rewards, and the strategic implications of open-source AI for India.

5. 

   S4 · E26 · 12 Jun 2025 · 38 min

   Interpreting China: From the LAC to Taiwan – Mapping China’s Assertiveness

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Saheb Singh Chadha is joined by Aadil Brar, reporter at TaiwanPlus News and contributor to "Views from Taipei", to examine China’s evolving strategy across its contested borders. What connects China’s actions across these frontiers? How is it creating a new military normal around Taiwan? And has its assertiveness resulted in negative consequences for itself? This is the third and final episode in our special Interpreting China series, based on Views from Taipei, a collection of essays by young Indian scholars on China. Aadil’s essay, "From Land…

6. 

   S4 · E25 · 29 May 2025 · 41 min

   Interpreting China: The People’s Liberation Army—Reforms and Challenges

   In this episode of Interpreting India, host Saheb Singh Chadha is joined by Suyash Desai, nonresident fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, to explore the transformation and challenges facing China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Over the past decade, the PLA has seen rapid changes under Xi Jinping, from sweeping structural reforms to new mobilization and training strategies. But how ready is it really for a conflict over Taiwan? And what do these changes mean for India? This is the second episode in our special three-part Interpreting China series, based on Views…

7. 

   S5 · E50 · 27 Aug 2026 · 45 min

   Subsea Cables, AI Infrastructure, and Africa's Connectivity Gap

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Charukeshi Bhatt speaks with Jane Munga, fellow with the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on the subsea cable landscape in Africa. With the continent now home to around 77 submarine cables and one of the fastest growing AI infrastructure markets in the world, the conversation moves beyond the headline investment numbers to ask harder questions: who benefits, who governs, and what does resilience actually look like when the cables go down? This episode explores: • Africa is seeing a surge in AI and cable infrastructure…

8. 

   S5 · E49 · 13 Aug 2026 · 50 min

   India, Australia, and the Critical Minerals Opportunity

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Shruti Mittal, research analyst at Carnegie India, speaks with Professor Mohan Yellishetty of Monash University on the India-Australia critical minerals partnership, what it has delivered so far, and where the two countries can build the most meaningful cooperation over the next decade. This episode explores: • How have India and Australia's mineral positions evolved individually over the last few years, and where do their trajectories stand today when viewed together? • Beyond the standard supply-demand complementarity, what do genuine areas of…

9. 

   S5 · E48 · 10 Jul 2026 · 34 min

   Chokepoints, Economic Warfare and India's Strategic Options

   In this episode of Interpreting India, Konark Bhandari, speaks with Edward Fishman, author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, on economic statecraft, how the U.S. built its playbook for economic warfare over time, and what the lessons are for India as it looks to build its own economic resilience. This episode explores: • What makes something a genuine choke point, and is there a playbook that other countries can actually replicate? • Why were China's rare earth export controls and Iran's leverage over the Strait of Hormuz among the most consequential acts of…

10. 

    S5 · E47 · 2 Jul 2026 · 33 min

    India's AI Ambitions and the Road to Viksit Bharat | AI Summit Special

    In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh, speaks with Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog and Chief Architect of the NITI Frontier Tech Hub. With nearly three decades across Intel, NASSCOM, and now NITI Aayog, Debjani brings a perspective that is both deeply practical and genuinely optimistic. She co-chaired the working group on AI for Economic Growth and Social Good at the India AI Impact Summit, and in this conversation she reflects on what the summit delivered, what India's AI journey needs to get right, and why the human being has to stay at the center of all of it.

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