Abundant Tech Talent India’s Biggest Asset In AI Space: PM Modi On Lex Fridman Podcast

Amid rising adoption of GenAI across the globe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India’s youth and talent pool is the country’s biggest asset and will drive the progress of AI.

In a podcast with Lex Fridman, Modi said, “Without genuine human intelligence, AI can’t thrive or progress sustainably, and that real intelligence exists abundantly in India’s youth and talent pool, and I believe that’s our greatest asset.”

The PM also said that AI will remain incomplete without India. “No matter what the world does with AI, it will remain incomplete without India,” he said. 

He underlined that the fundamental essence of AI is collaboration and Indians are collaborative by nature.

Talking about India’s approach towards AI, Modi said that the country is not only developing theoretical AI models but also actively working on and bringing to life AI-driven applications for very specific use cases to ensure that GPU access is available to every section of society. 

“We have already created a unique marketplace-based model to ensure its broad accessibility, ” Modi said, hinting at the IndiaAI Mission. 

It is pertinent to note that the Centre has launched the IndiaAI Mission to build a high-end scalable AI computing ecosystem with a capacity of 10,000 or more GPUs via public-private partnerships. This initiative includes an AI marketplace designed to offer AI as a service and pre-trained models to AI innovators. 

Under the Mission, the Centre also floated a proposal inviting applications from Indian startups, researchers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate on building foundational AI models trained on Indian data sets. It has received at least 67 proposals, including from startups like Sarvam AI, CoRover.ai and Ola’s Krutrim, to build the LLMs.

Last month, Modi also co-chaired the AI Action Summit, along with France President Emmanuel Macron, in Paris. He announced that India will host the next AI Action Summit.