‘We should not consider Sam Altman anything other than an important man in AI’: MoS IT

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology has said that ChatGPT maker Sam Altman should not be considered anything other than an important man in Artificial Intelligence (AI). In an interview with MoneyControl, the minister spoke about Altman’s recent visit to India and the controversy on how it is hard to build foundational large language models in India.

“Sam Altman is a bright man who certainly has done a lot of work in OpenAI. And he has to be respected for his work. But we should not consider him anything other than an important man in AI. He's certainly not going to be the last word on what India's aspirations for AI are going to be. He certainly doesn't have an understanding of India's capabilities in AI.” 

He added that his comments should be given the respect that it deserves but it is not fair to assume that everything he says or does is exactly what Indian startups are going to do. He further said that there will be fields where he and Altman will never agree.

The minister said that AI is an area where we will need to create Indian capability, “not government of India capability, but Indian startups and ecosystem capability… Maybe we'll end up doing it in partnership with him.”

A recent video shared by CP Gurnani, the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra, in which Altman can be heard stating that India's chances of developing a ChatGPT-like tool were "hopeless" sparked controversy.

Altman responded to the tweet, clarifying that his response was taken totally out of context. He elaborated that the response was to address the question of competing with OpenAI with a $10 million investment. He said that in this specific case, it will be difficult to attempt to rival OpenAI.  

On being asked about Altman’s point of discussion with top leaders during his India visit, the minister revealed that Altman understands India’s potential. He added that there will be hundreds of opportunities for the Indian government, and startups to work together in the future.

During the India visit, Sam Altman met with PM Narendra Modi and tweeted saying, “great conversation with @narendramodi discussing India's incredible tech ecosystem and how the country can benefit from ai. Really enjoyed all my meetings with people in the @PMOIndia.”

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