RACE FOR DOMINANCE
AI is thus far dominated by American and Chinese companies, with Indian developers lagging.
It is too early to tell whether that is a disadvantage for India, which has its own strengths in terms of the scale at which AI will be applied. Yet, that raises the question whether Indian data will mainly serve to improve the AI models of foreign companies pouring investment into India’s infrastructure.
But there is a difference between fundamental research and applications. “India never had the research muscle, as we simply do not have the R&D budgets that these economies have,” Amit Joshi, Professor at IMD Business School in Lausanne told me. “The real question is how we leverage what others develop and apply it to change our business models and operating models.”
The AI Impact Summit marked a potential watershed in this respect, with at least three Indian companies – Sarvam, Gnani.ai and BharatGen – announcing advanced models.
LEADING THE GLOBAL SOUTH
There is also a geopolitical aspect to the application of AI in India. India is positioning itself as the voice of the Global South, as Shruti Rajagopalan, an economist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, wrote earlier this month.
Given India’s talent pool and large startup ecosystem, it has a natural advantage. “India has demonstrated the ability to innovate frugally, at scale and for contexts suitable for developing countries,” she wrote.
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