OpenAI hires first employee from India, appoints govt relations head: Report

ChatGPT developer OpenAI hired its first employee in India, appointing a government relations head, according to a Bloomberg report. 

The Microsoft backed-company recruited Pragya Misra to lead public policy affairs and partnerships in India, the Bloomberg report quoted people familiar with the matter.

Business Today couldn't independently verify the report.

Misra, 39, previously worked at Truecaller AB and Meta Platforms Inc and is set to join at OpenAI towards the end of the month.

The hiring highlights the generative-AI company’s efforts to push for favorable rules as governments around the world consider how to regulate the rapidly developing technology.

Misra previously headed public affairs at Stockholm-traded contact verification firm Truecaller. Before that, she was at Meta Platforms Inc., where she led WhatsApp’s campaign against misinformation in 2018, the Bloomberg report added.

In India, OpenAI faces competition from Google, which is developing an AI model specifically for the country and other domestic players, who are developing own large language models (LLMs) for local languages to widen internet access beyond the country’s English-speaking population.

Countries such as India should support AI research in ways that can improve government services like health care, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during his visit to India in 2023.

“The main thing that I think is important is figuring out how to integrate these technologies into other services,” Altman said at the time.

The OpenAI CEO has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the tour and hailed India's early adoption of of its generative-AI service ChatGPT.

Altman has called for more regulations and said his “greatest fear” is that the AI technology would cause significant harm.