Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI seems to have a perspective change on India’s AI (artificial intelligence) plans. Initially (last year) he was doubtful about India’s potential to compete in the development of foundational AI models as the associated cost was high.

However, during his recent visit to India, he expressed optimism and acknowledged the country’s swift progress in the AI landscape. Now, he believes the country has the potential to be a global leader in AI.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Altman said ‘India should go for the full-stack approach in Artificial Intelligence’.

Altman has significantly revised his recommendations for India’s AI development since his 2023 visit. In the initial visit, responding to a question he had said, “It is totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models,”.

He had suggested that government and business resources would be better spent elsewhere. In the interview on Wednesday, he said “That was in a different context”. “That was a time when frontier models were super-expensive to do”.

“If you look at the cost curve of AI, we have been able to reduce the cost of a given level of intelligence about 10x every 12 months, which is unbelievably more powerful than Moore’s law,” he added.

In the interview, Altman said “India will build great models’. While not revealing exact numbers, Altman confirmed India as OpenAI’s second-biggest market after the US, with user growth tripling in the last year.

He said, “ think this is one of these rare things that transcends national borders. AI is like the wheel and the fire and the Industrial Revolution and the agricultural revolution. That is not a country thing. It belongs to everybody”.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hopeless-to-incredible-sam-altman-changes-his-mind-on-india-s-ai-plans-101738780851523.html