In a Bloomberg interview, when Sam Altman was requested about China and Russia’s progress on AI and what they’re doing, he stated that it could be useful if we knew – “ I would love to know more precisely where they are.” While these two nations may need been evading updates on their progress within the AI area, India could not have a lot to hide. If you concentrate on it, how concerned are our Indian tycoons in terms of investing within the AI area? 

Not My Cup of Tea

If you have a look at investments that had been pumped into Indian startups providing AI-based services,the investments obtained until 2022 have been promising. According to Stanford University’s annual AI Index report, Indian AI startups obtained a complete funding of $7.73 billion throughout 2013-2022, with $3.24 billion in 2022, making it the sixth-ranking country with the most AI investments. India is positioned forward of nations comparable to South Korea, France, and others. Interestingly, China got here in at second place after the US. 

When it involves future investments, India nonetheless stands as essentially the most interesting investment hub of the next decade and even surpassing different rising markets. However, the main target stays on banking, finance, renewable power, electrical autos and manufacturing to current a major likelihood to generate returns.

While the image has been fairly completely different this yr with generative AI making its manner, and billion greenback investments pouring into AI corporations, Indian traders appear to be lacking on this ‘AI- action.’ If we have a look at our Indian favourites, none of them have proven any lively curiosity. 

Billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, could have expressed his interest for ChatGPT earlier this yr, nevertheless, there was no important motion in terms of AI investments. In January this yr, Adani introduced his plan to set up an AI lab in Tel Aviv and likewise stated that the corporate will collaborate with AI labs in India and the US. In December final yr, Adani Enterprises accomplished an acquisition of SIBIA Analytics and Consulting for INR 14.80 crore, which he stated will assist Adani Group enhance their AI and ML capabilities. Apart from these two developments, there was none within the AI area from the investor. 

Similarly, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s investments could largely be in telecom, power, and retail, to call a number of, and has not been too concerned within the AI area. Last yr, Reliance industries allotted a sum of $15 million to amass a 25% ownership in Two Platforms, which specialises in deep-tech endeavours for constructing interactive and immersive AI encounters. However, this was at a time when generative AI insanity had not begun.  

Others Racing Past

Considering how India was forward of South Korea in final yr’s annual AI Index report, the latter is now transferring leaps and bounds within the AI area. From competing within the world AI chip race to closely investing in AI corporations, South Korea is racing by way of. Recently, SK Telecom invested $100M in Anthropic. Telecom large KT Corp can be planning to speculate $5.4 billion on AI by 2027. 

Furthermore, Sam Altman has additionally expressed interest in investing in Korean startups and has inspired the nation to guide in AI chip manufacturing. He even recommends Korea to direct its consideration in direction of semiconductor chips which will probably be an integral function for AI developments. 

Abu Dhabi has additionally stepped up within the open supply mannequin race with Falcon. Developed by the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Falcon got here in three iterations – 1B, 7B, and 40B. It is alleged to show superior efficiency when in comparison with LLaMA.

Will Not Give Up

Even if actuality paints a special image, the ambitions are uncapped. MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra, CP Gurnani was fast to take private offence to Sam Altman’s assertion which was taken out of context throughout his India go to. While he declared “challenge accepted”, with out understanding the context of constructing LLMs with $10 million, the expertise pool in India just isn’t utilised itself. Furthermore, there’s not a single Indian investor who has gone huge on AI investments. 

While our traders might not be betting huge on exterior applied sciences, there was significant progress happening within the country. There have been developments in Indic language mannequin the place AI4Bharat, an initiative of IIT Madras, is focussed on constructing open-source language AI for Indian languages together with datasets, fashions and functions. Backed by Nandan Nilekani, AI4Bharat is working in direction of making these foundational fashions throughout duties and 22 Indian languages. 

You even have corporations comparable to Karya that have partnered with rural India to create datasets for coaching LLMs for Microsoft, Google and different Indian gamers. 

While India is formidable in creating and supporting LLMs by way of datasets or implementing generative AI in their organisations, Indian traders take a step again in terms of pouring cash in AI corporations which are aggressively working within the area.