India's chance to create AI's third way: Mozilla Foundation president
There is a huge opportunity for countries like India to step forward and be champions in artificial intelligence by investing in open source and enabling the creation of a third way of AI that is different from Big Tech and China, Mozilla Foundation president Mark Surman said.
Countries, companies and individuals have the opportunity to create this third way for smaller firms to build open-source and more trustworthy AI taking humans into account, given how polarising things are at the moment, Surman told ET on the sidelines of the AI Summit.
The company is investing $650 million to create what Surman calls a “Rebel Alliance”, where it will back companies that are developing open-source AI through its impact investment fund, Mozilla Ventures. It is looking to partner with companies and organisations in India and across the world to create technology and tools that could be alternatives to those from Big Tech.
According to him, a trajectory similar to Linux could play out in AI as well. An open-source operating system, Linux beat out big private companies like Sun Microsystems or even the server operating systems of Microsoft.
Competition and regulation
Mozilla is seeking stronger competition enforcement and more user-centric regulation as governments worldwide grapple with the growing dominance of Big Tech in AI and digital markets.
Mozilla vice-president for global policy Linda Griffin and director of global competition Kush Amlani, also speaking to ET, said the global conversation on AI governance has shifted from a narrow safety focus to broader concerns around competition, transparency and user choice.
Griffin described the IndiaAI Impact Summit as “much more inclusive” than earlier global AI gatherings, noting a widening of the debate beyond safety to include market structure and open-source innovation. “We want to prove that you can build engaging technology that treats people’s data and choices differently,” she said, adding that competition and trust online remain Mozilla’s “north star”.
Traditional antitrust enforcement has struggled to keep pace with fast-moving digital markets, Amlani argued. Cases often take years to conclude, by which time smaller competitors have already exited the market.
In response, several jurisdictions have moved toward ex-ante regulation, proactive rules that apply upfront to dominant platforms. He cited the European Union’s Digital Markets Act and the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 as examples of frameworks designed to ensure interoperability and user choice before markets “tip” irreversibly.
According to Amlani, early evidence suggests such measures can have a tangible impact. After choice requirements were introduced under the EU regime, daily active users of Mozilla’s Firefox browser on iOS doubled, with significantly improved retention. “When you give people a real choice, they choose alternatives,” he said.
He added that future antitrust scrutiny is likely to focus on bundling practices, such as cloud providers tying customers to their own AI models or operating systems privileging default browsers, especially as AI becomes vertically integrated across the stack from compute to distribution.
Both executives expressed concern about growing concentration in AI markets, describing the influx of capital across compute, cloud and model layers as “a wall of money”. Griffin cautioned against what she called “technology exceptionalism”, the argument that regulation stifles innovation. Drawing comparisons with healthcare and finance, she said oversight is necessary in sectors that deeply affect citizens’ lives.
“It is only the biggest technology companies in the world that say regulation is bad for innovation,” she said, arguing that many startups and midsize tech firms support targeted competition rules to level the playing field.
Amlani said governments are increasingly combining competition policy with industrial policy, investing in domestic AI capabilities. Countries such as India are building out GPU capacity and encouraging homegrown AI stacks, reflecting broader sovereignty ambitions also visible in Europe’s “Eurostack” discussions, he said.
Privacy and online safety
While AI dominates headlines, Griffin said longstanding issues around privacy, digital advertising and online safety remain unresolved.
She pointed to the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act as a risk-based regulatory framework that has faced implementation and public-relations challenges. However, she said many governments are revisiting foundational digital governance questions, including protections for minors online and data transparency.
Mozilla, she said, is exploring ways to reimagine digital advertising with stronger privacy protections, leveraging its browser expertise to demonstrate that the open web can remain economically viable without invasive tracking.
At the heart of Mozilla’s competitive contribution lies Firefox and its browser engine, Gecko. Amlani said only three major browser engines remain globally: Google’s Chromium, Apple’s WebKit and Gecko. Gecko, he argued, plays a critical role in maintaining interoperability and influencing web standards.
As a non-profit-owned company competing against trillion-dollar firms, Mozilla sees its mission as preserving diversity in the web’s underlying infrastructure.
Griffin said aligning product, engineering and policy at Mozilla is facilitated by its mission-driven culture. “People join Mozilla out of a sense of purpose,” she said, adding that the company aims to act as an “honest broker” in debates over web standards, privacy and competition.
Navigating regional policy differences between the EU, the US and emerging markets such as India requires transparency and humility, Griffin said. Rather than advocating for national dominance, Mozilla positions itself as an advocate for open, interoperable systems that support startups and user choice across jurisdictions, she said.
As AI regulation evolves, Amlani said policymakers should incorporate user testing and behavioural research into regulatory design much like tech firms test product features to ensure remedies are effective in practice.
Countries, companies and individuals have the opportunity to create this third way for smaller firms to build open-source and more trustworthy AI taking humans into account, given how polarising things are at the moment, Surman told ET on the sidelines of the AI Summit.
The company is investing $650 million to create what Surman calls a “Rebel Alliance”, where it will back companies that are developing open-source AI through its impact investment fund, Mozilla Ventures. It is looking to partner with companies and organisations in India and across the world to create technology and tools that could be alternatives to those from Big Tech.
According to him, a trajectory similar to Linux could play out in AI as well. An open-source operating system, Linux beat out big private companies like Sun Microsystems or even the server operating systems of Microsoft.
Competition and regulation
Mozilla is seeking stronger competition enforcement and more user-centric regulation as governments worldwide grapple with the growing dominance of Big Tech in AI and digital markets.
Mozilla vice-president for global policy Linda Griffin and director of global competition Kush Amlani, also speaking to ET, said the global conversation on AI governance has shifted from a narrow safety focus to broader concerns around competition, transparency and user choice.
Griffin described the IndiaAI Impact Summit as “much more inclusive” than earlier global AI gatherings, noting a widening of the debate beyond safety to include market structure and open-source innovation. “We want to prove that you can build engaging technology that treats people’s data and choices differently,” she said, adding that competition and trust online remain Mozilla’s “north star”.
Traditional antitrust enforcement has struggled to keep pace with fast-moving digital markets, Amlani argued. Cases often take years to conclude, by which time smaller competitors have already exited the market.
In response, several jurisdictions have moved toward ex-ante regulation, proactive rules that apply upfront to dominant platforms. He cited the European Union’s Digital Markets Act and the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 as examples of frameworks designed to ensure interoperability and user choice before markets “tip” irreversibly.
According to Amlani, early evidence suggests such measures can have a tangible impact. After choice requirements were introduced under the EU regime, daily active users of Mozilla’s Firefox browser on iOS doubled, with significantly improved retention. “When you give people a real choice, they choose alternatives,” he said.
He added that future antitrust scrutiny is likely to focus on bundling practices, such as cloud providers tying customers to their own AI models or operating systems privileging default browsers, especially as AI becomes vertically integrated across the stack from compute to distribution.
Both executives expressed concern about growing concentration in AI markets, describing the influx of capital across compute, cloud and model layers as “a wall of money”. Griffin cautioned against what she called “technology exceptionalism”, the argument that regulation stifles innovation. Drawing comparisons with healthcare and finance, she said oversight is necessary in sectors that deeply affect citizens’ lives.
“It is only the biggest technology companies in the world that say regulation is bad for innovation,” she said, arguing that many startups and midsize tech firms support targeted competition rules to level the playing field.
Amlani said governments are increasingly combining competition policy with industrial policy, investing in domestic AI capabilities. Countries such as India are building out GPU capacity and encouraging homegrown AI stacks, reflecting broader sovereignty ambitions also visible in Europe’s “Eurostack” discussions, he said.
Privacy and online safety
While AI dominates headlines, Griffin said longstanding issues around privacy, digital advertising and online safety remain unresolved.
She pointed to the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act as a risk-based regulatory framework that has faced implementation and public-relations challenges. However, she said many governments are revisiting foundational digital governance questions, including protections for minors online and data transparency.
Mozilla, she said, is exploring ways to reimagine digital advertising with stronger privacy protections, leveraging its browser expertise to demonstrate that the open web can remain economically viable without invasive tracking.
At the heart of Mozilla’s competitive contribution lies Firefox and its browser engine, Gecko. Amlani said only three major browser engines remain globally: Google’s Chromium, Apple’s WebKit and Gecko. Gecko, he argued, plays a critical role in maintaining interoperability and influencing web standards.
As a non-profit-owned company competing against trillion-dollar firms, Mozilla sees its mission as preserving diversity in the web’s underlying infrastructure.
Griffin said aligning product, engineering and policy at Mozilla is facilitated by its mission-driven culture. “People join Mozilla out of a sense of purpose,” she said, adding that the company aims to act as an “honest broker” in debates over web standards, privacy and competition.
Navigating regional policy differences between the EU, the US and emerging markets such as India requires transparency and humility, Griffin said. Rather than advocating for national dominance, Mozilla positions itself as an advocate for open, interoperable systems that support startups and user choice across jurisdictions, she said.
As AI regulation evolves, Amlani said policymakers should incorporate user testing and behavioural research into regulatory design much like tech firms test product features to ensure remedies are effective in practice.
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