New Delhi:
As India embarks on a transformative journey in artificial intelligence (AI), OpenAI Co-founder and CEO Sam Altman has underscored the country’s pivotal role in the global AI landscape. During a recent event in New Delhi, Altman emphasized India’s importance as OpenAI’s second largest market globally and highlighted the nation’s potential to become a leading force in AI innovation.
India is on the cusp of launching its own indigenous AI model, designed to be safe, secure, and affordable. This initiative, set to be realized within six months, aligns with the government’s vision to make India a technological powerhouse in ethical AI solutions. Meanwhile, Altman has announced a monumental $500 billion ‘Stargate’ project to build new AI infrastructure in the US, in collaboration with SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, over the next four years.
Sam Altman reiterated that India is a crucial market for AI, noting that it is OpenAI’s second biggest market worldwide. He praised the country’s rapid growth, stating that OpenAI has tripled its user base in India over the last year. Altman also addressed his previous comments on Indian startups, clarifying that they were taken out of context. He acknowledged the significant progress made in AI model distillation, making it feasible for smaller models to be developed, albeit not cheaply.
India’s plans to launch its own AI model are ambitious and timely. The model, backed by a high-end common computing facility, will be customized for the domestic context using Indian languages. The initial computation facility will consist of roughly 10,000 GPUs, with an additional 8,693 GPUs to be added soon. This indigenous model will be made available at a significantly lower cost than global models, with the government subsidizing 40% of the cost, bringing the price down to less than Rs 100 per hour. In comparison, global models cost between $2.5 to $3 per hour.
The Indian AI model will boast about nine times the capacity of China’s DeepSeek open-source model and approximately two-thirds of what ChatGPT offers. This development is part of India’s broader strategy to emerge as a reliable technological powerhouse in ethical AI solutions. Young entrepreneurs in the country are driving this innovation, focusing on reducing the cost of AI models, as highlighted by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw drew parallels between India’s AI ambitions and the successful Chandrayaan mission, emphasizing the country’s capability to achieve significant technological milestones.
Altman’s visit to India includes high-level meetings with government officials, including IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These engagements aim to foster collaborative opportunities and discuss the future of AI innovation in India. The ‘Stargate’ project, while focused on US infrastructure, underscores OpenAI’s commitment to advancing AI globally, and India’s role in this ecosystem is seen as pivotal.
