OpenAI Makes First Hiring In India To Smoothen Its Journey In The Country

Microsoft-backed ChatGPT developer OpenAI has reportedly made its first hiring in India. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has roped in ex-Meta and Truecaller employee Pragya Misra to lead public policy affairs and partnerships in India. 

Misra is set to take office by the end of this month, people aware of the development told the publication. The hiring comes at a time when OpenAI is looking to make inroads within the country. 

OpenAI’s flagship large language model (LLM) ChatGPT is the most widely adopted generative AI (GenAI) product globally. Moreover, it has the second highest number of users from India. 

With the hiring, the company has reiterated its India focus at a time when the central government has upped the ante on GenAI. During the recently held Startup Mahakumbh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will have an upper hand in AI.

“Our job is to not let the opportunity go. If there are language constraints for the election campaign, I leverage AI to disseminate my message effectively in Tamil, Telugu and Odia,” Modi said.

Recently, the government also approved the IndiaAI Mission with an allocation of INR 10,372 Cr over the course of next five years. The funds are to be used to foster innovation in the homegrown AI ecosystem and implement the Mission’s vision via a public-private partnership (PPP) model. 

Apart from the government’s focus, the AI space in India is also heating up with more enterprises adapting AI solutions in their businesses. According to Inc42’s India’s Generative AI Startup Landscape Report, 2023, at least 59% of enterprise-scale organisations in India actively use GenAI to fuel their business growth. 

Besides, 74% of enterprises that are already working with the emerging tech have accelerated their investments in the past 24 months in areas like R&D and workforce reskilling. 

However, there are also concerns about the misuse of GenAI. Recently, Google ran into trouble with the IT ministry in India over some of the responses of its LLM model Gemini on PM Modi.

This led the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to roll out an advisory that mandated digital platforms to seek prior approval before launching any AI product in India. However, the government rolled back the advisory after public outcry over the issue.