During brief remarks at the top of the meeting, Biden doubled down on the sentiment he expressed earlier in the week while meeting with AI leaders in San Francisco: “We are going to see more technological change – you heard me say this a number of times – in the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50 years." This time, he added the partnership between the U.S. and India on such issues “will go a long way in my view to define what the 21st century looks like.”

On Thursday, Biden and Modi announced several new agreements in the technology field, including that India will sign the Artemis Accords, a nonbinding agreement with the goal of returning humankind to the moon and, eventually, onward to Mars; investments in new semiconductor supply chains, assembly and test facilities in India; and new collaborative agreements on quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

“Simply put, our countries are taking innovation and cooperation to a new level in our relationship,” Biden said on Friday.

Recently, Biden has placed a large emphasis on artificial intelligence, meeting with leaders in the field in San Francisco earlier this week and at the White House in May. Earlier this month, the topic played a key role in the president’s meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is preparing to host a summit on the topic in the Fall.

Simon Goldstein, associate professor at the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at ACU, said coordination between different countries on this emerging technology is imperative, noting “one very dangerous area is the use of AI military weapons, for example lethal autonomous weapons.”

“We have this powerful new technology; it's exploding in its capabilities very quickly. And so, it's going to require international cooperation to agree on standards to make sure that it doesn't proliferate,” he said.  

The president urged tech leaders at Friday’s meeting, which included Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and more, to engage with policymakers on how to “seize the moment” as well as “manage the risks.”

“We need your help to build guardrails around emerging technologies so that they are trustworthy, they are secure and uphold our shared value on human rights,” Biden said, once again mentioning an issue, human rights, that became a focus of Modi’s U.S. visit.

The Indian leader has faced criticism from human rights groups that he is cracking down on dissent, targeting religious minorities and journalists. A handful of House Democrats boycotted Modi’s joint address to Congress over the issue.

During a joint address on Thursday, Biden emphasized the importance of press and religious freedoms in democratic nations and said he and Modi had a “good discussion about democratic values”. Modi pushed back on a question from a reporter about the topic on Thursday, saying “Democracy is in our DNA.”

Congress has also ramped up attention on AI. This week, Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Ken Buck, R-Colo., introduced a bipartisan bill that would create a 20-member commission to review the field and release three reports and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., released a framework for regulating the technology.