AI Dispatch | India’s Courts Take First Swing at AI Rules

This week brought major developments across AI policy, infrastructure and enterprise technology.

MIT SMR Editors June 05, 2026

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[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR India]

This week brought major developments across AI policy, infrastructure and enterprise technology. India’s Supreme Court proposed draft rules for AI in courts, Microsoft unveiled a slate of new AI products at Build 2026, SAP Labs India selected 16 startups for its accelerator program, and Anthropic closed a massive funding round as competition among AI companies continues to intensify.

1. Apex Court Proposes AI Rules for Indian Courts

The Supreme Court of India has released draft regulations governing the use of artificial intelligence in courts and invited public comments until June 20. The framework allows AI for administrative and research tasks but requires human oversight in all judicial processes. It bars algorithm-only judicial decisions, AI-based risk scoring, predictive profiling and opaque AI systems in matters affecting legal rights or personal liberty. The draft also proposes a permanent oversight body to regulate AI use across the judiciary.

2. SAP Labs India Selects 16 Startups for 2026

SAP Labs India has selected 16 startups for the 2026 cohort of its Startup Studio accelerator. The six-month program will give startups access to SAP leaders, engineering teams, enterprise customers and commercialization opportunities. The selected companies work across enterprise AI, agentic systems, robotics, automation, quantum-safe security and industrial intelligence. The program marks the tenth year of SAP Startup Studio.

3. How AI Is Transforming India’s Key Sectors

AI is moving deeper into India’s critical systems, from healthcare, agriculture and finance to courts, defense and energy. The technology is being used to improve services, automate processes and support decision-making across the public and private sectors. But governance, accountability and equitable access remain open questions. Deployment is accelerating faster than the legal and institutional frameworks needed to oversee it. Tiny little governance problem, naturally.

4. Data Centers Find Friendlier Ground in India

India has one of the world’s highest levels of public support for new data centers, with 65% of respondents backing expansion, according to a Public First survey reported by the Financial Times. Support is far higher than in the US, UK, Germany and France. The findings come as India expands AI and cloud infrastructure to meet rising demand for compute and digital services.

5. Microsoft Shares Major AI Upgrades at Build 2026

At the company’s flagship conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared that the era of operating systems and apps was over and that AI agents would define the future.

Key announcements include Project Solara, a platform to build AI devices like wearable badges and desk assistants; the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a powerful PC for running large AI models locally; MAI-Code-1-Flash and MAI-Thinking-1 coding and reasoning models; Majorana 2, an improved quantum chip; and Scout, a background AI assistant with security controls.

6. Top AI Leaders Call for Stricter Laws Against AI Biothreats

Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI), and more than 50 other signatories have urged the US Congress in a public letter to impose safeguards on the handling of synthetic DNA and RNA—key materials used to develop vaccines and other biotech innovations.

Experts and leaders note that although ordering synthetic DNA online has sped up vaccine development, a blind spot exists that malicious actors can exploit to reconstruct harmful viruses.

7. Meta Enters Enterprise AI Race

Announced at the company’s WhatsApp-focused Conversations conference, Meta unveiled a new AI product for businesses, thereby formally entering the enterprise AI race. The Meta Business Agent will build upon existing business messaging services by offering “agentic” capabilities in which the assistant can take actions on businesses’ ‌behalf, from booking calendar appointments to closing sales.

The move signals the social media giant’s ambitions to rival OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alphabet’s Google for a share of the enterprise AI market.

8. Anthropic Raises $65B in New Round

Anthropic has raised $65 billion in a Series H funding round, valuing the company at $965 billion. The funding includes previously committed investments from hyperscalers and will be used for AI research, safety work, computing infrastructure, and Claude product development.

The AI startup has surpassed OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation, thanks to a funding round led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital. Anthropic has greatly benefited from the growing demand for enterprise solutions, particularly for its products such as Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork.

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