Ramaphosa proposes BRICS body to audit AI at New Delhi summit

President Cyril Ramaphosa has proposed that BRICS establish an international mechanism for the independent scientific evaluation of artificial intelligence, telling the group’s leaders’ summit in New Delhi that human governance must advance as rapidly as the technology itself.

Speaking during the session on Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth at the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit, Ramaphosa said AI companies should be subject to formal external checks, audits and government authority, and named Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, as one of the industry figures making that argument.

He compared the oversight he wants to aviation, pharmaceuticals, nuclear power and financial institutions, sectors where independent scrutiny is already standard because their activities carry significant consequences for human safety.

We must never reach a situation where technological capability has moved beyond our capacity to understand it, supervise it and control it.

The proposal carries four parts. An independent scientific evaluation mechanism for AI. Meaningful human-control principles. Mandatory reporting of serious incidents. And progressively stronger safeguards as capability increases, alongside simultaneous investment in sovereign AI capacity for developing economy countries.

What the president says the risk is

Ramaphosa did not present artificial intelligence as a threat in itself. He said it has the potential to usher in a new era of productivity and human progress, and that used effectively and responsibly it can support efforts to reduce inequality, poverty and underdevelopment. He listed medicine, education, scientific discovery, agriculture, productivity and development among the areas it can transform.

The caution came from what he described as the warnings of those building the most powerful systems. He said they are warning about systems capable of advanced cyber operations, assistance in biological weapons development, autonomous action, manipulation, mass surveillance and disruption of employment.

His formulation was that South Africa should neither fear AI nor approach it recklessly.

The summit’s wider agenda

The AI proposal sits inside a broader South African push at the summit. Ramaphosa welcomed India’s decision to prioritise resilience, which he linked directly to the disaster risk reduction outcomes of South Africa’s G20 Presidency, and called for disaster risk reduction to be integrated into macroeconomic policy, climate financing and sustainable infrastructure.

On the energy transition he said the priority must be re-skilling, protecting livelihoods and anchoring new industries that generate quality jobs. On minerals, he argued that beneficiation must take place at source if growth is to be inclusive in Africa and other regions, and that markets for critical minerals and transition technologies should be built on transparency with diversified and responsible value chains.

The president also pointed to scientific cooperation already under way, including the BRICS Intelligent Telescope and Data Network and the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre, and called for stronger medical sovereignty, vaccine development, genomic surveillance and diagnostic capabilities for the Global South. On agriculture, he called for cooperation to transform the sector through innovation.

Money, and the case for a bigger bank

Economic and financial cooperation, Ramaphosa said, sits at the centre of the resilience the group is seeking. South Africa supports a balanced and gradual expansion of the New Development Bank, and welcomes continued discussion of the proposed New Investment Platform and the BRICS Multilateral Guarantees initiative.

He said the group must press ahead with greater use of local currencies, stronger cross-border payment systems and deeper financial interconnectivity.

As BRICS enters its third decade, he said it should be more ambitious, and that engagement with partner countries should spur deeper cooperation in public health, education, science and technology, finance and trade.

In the 40th anniversary year of the UN Resolution on the Right to Development, he called on BRICS to renew its commitment to realising what he described as the inalienable human right to development.

He closed with a line from the Indian poet, activist and leader Sarojini Naidu, urging deeper sincerity of motive, greater courage in speech and earnestness in action.

What it means here

The immediate effect for South Africa is a proposal on the table rather than a decision taken. The evaluation mechanism Ramaphosa described would need agreement from the other BRICS members before it exists, and the summit produced no announced timetable for that work.

The parts with nearer consequences for the domestic economy are the minerals position and the payments position. Beneficiation at source is a long-standing South African argument, and it speaks directly to how much of the value of the country’s platinum group metals, manganese and other critical minerals is processed before it leaves the region. Greater use of local currencies in cross-border trade is aimed at reducing the cost and delay that dollar settlement adds to transactions between member states.

On skills, Ramaphosa’s framing ties the transition to jobs rather than to closures, with re-skilling named as the first priority rather than an afterthought.

Source: South African Government (www.gov.za), statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the session on Shaping the Future for Inclusive Global Growth, 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit, New Delhi. https://www.gov.za/news/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-statement-during-session-shaping-future-inclusive-global