Union minister of electronics and information technology (IT) Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday responded to OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman’s remarks wherein he said chances are ‘hopeless’ for India to build an AI tool like the ChatGPT. The minister said Altman is not the last word on the country’s aspirations in the field of artificial intelligence.
In an interview to Moneycontrol, Chandrasekhar called Altman as a ‘bright man’ who did a lot of work in OpenAI. However, the minister said he should be respected for his work but not be considered anything other than an important man in AI. “He’s certainly not going to be the last word on what India’s aspirations for AI are going to be. He certainly doesn’t have an understanding of India’s capabilities in AI,” Chandrasekhar told the website.
The minister said Altman’s remarks will be taken with the respect that it deserves. But Chandrasekhar said to assume that everything the AI boss does or says is exactly what Indian startups are going to do is to miss the point.
After Altman made the remarks at an event, Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani had taken to Twitter, accepting the ‘challenge’ put forth by the OpenAI boss.
OpenAI founder Sam Altman said it’s pretty hopeless for Indian companies to try and compete with them.
Dear @sama, From one CEO to another..
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. pic.twitter.com/67FDUtLNq0
— CP Gurnani (@C_P_Gurnani) June 9, 2023
Altman had responded saying, “This is really taken out of context! the question was about competing with us with $10 million, which i really do think is not going to work. but i still said try! however, i think it’s the wrong question.”
“The right question is what a startup can do that’s never been done before, that will contribute a new thing to the world. i have no doubt indian startups can and will do that! and no one but the builders can answer that question”, Altman had said.
