New Delhi: The OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in India and has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss the future of AI in India and its downsides. Altman spilled beans about his meeting with Modi during the Digital India Dialogues event at IIIT Delhi. He mentioned that the meeting with the Prime Minister was enjoyable because Modi showed a lot of enthusiasm and thoughtfulness towards Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Altman expressed his satisfaction with the meeting, stating that it was great and fun. He appreciated Modi’s enthusiasm and thoughtful insights on AI and its benefits. Altman also asked why India has embraced ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI chatbot, so eagerly and early on, and Modi provided great answers.
Besides India, Altman is on a six-nation tour this week, including Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and South Korea.
In a tweet, after meeting Altman, PM Modi wrote that the potential of AI in India’s tech ecosystem is vast — among the youth in particular.
“We welcome all collaborations that can accelerate our digital transformation for empowering our citizens,” PM Modi wrote.
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. pic.twitter.com/EzxVD0UMDM
— Sam Altman (@sama) June 9, 2023
During a session at IIIT Delhi, Altman said they discussed about the opportunities in front of the country and what the country should do in AI.
“We also felt the need to think about global regulation, which prevents some of the downsides from happening,” Altman said.
Altman said that his company was currently doing self-regulation.
“We spent almost 8 months on GPT for making sure that it was safe enough to release. We build the technology, we have worked with organisations to figure out what the limits should be and tested them all. We do think that coordination is important. So self-regulation is important. It is something that we want to offer. The world should not be left entirely in the hands of the companies,” Altman said at the session.
Talking about his plan for India, Altman said that the first thing he will do in India is to fund startups.
“We were always amazed and quite grateful for the quality of Indian startups,” he said, adding that he had met some startups in India.
Given India’s strong IT industry and a large set of data, AI-based utilities can leverage huge potential in the country. Though AI is still in its early stages.
The government quoting NASSCOM data in February this year said the overall AI employment in India is estimated at about 4,16,000 professionals. The growth rate for the sector is estimated at about 20-25 per cent.
Further, AI is expected to contribute an additional USD 957 billion to India’s economy by 2035.
