The OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in India and has met with Prime Minister Narender Modi, to discuss the future of AI in India and its downsides.Altman spilled beans about his meeting with Modi during the Digital India Dialogues event at IIIT Delhi. He mentioned that the meeting with the Prime Minister was enjoyable because Modi showed a lot of enthusiasm and thoughtfulness towards Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Altman expressed his satisfaction with the meeting, stating that it was great and fun. He appreciated Modi’s enthusiasm and thoughtful insights on AI and its benefits. Altman also asked why India has embraced ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI chatbot, so eagerly and early on, and Modi provided great answers.

Sharing a picture from his meeting with Modi, Altman wrote on Twitter, “great conversation with
@narendramodi discussing india’s incredible tech ecosystem and how the country can benefit from AI really enjoyed all my meetings with people in the
@PMOIndia.”

During their conversation, Altman and PM Modi discussed the potential and opportunities of AI in India, as well as the need for regulations to address the downsides of this emerging technology. Altman shared that they talked about the country’s prospects, the necessary steps for India, and the importance of global regulations to prevent negative consequences.

Altman, in an interview with Economic Times, expressed his admiration for India’s achievements in national technology. He acknowledged that ChatGPT has gained significant popularity in India, with many early adopters utilizing the AI chatbot.

“It was great. It was really fun. He was so enthusiastic, really thoughtful about AI, and the benefits of it. We asked why India has embraced ChatGPT so much and so early. It’s really been fun for us to watch. He had great answers about that, “Altman said.

Altman said that “the government should focus on integrating AI technology into various services, particularly by utilizing Language-Learning Models (LLMs) to enhance government services.”

Regarding Altman’s stance on AI regulation, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar commented that Altman is a smart individual with his own ideas on the matter. He mentioned that India also has intelligent minds with their own perspectives on establishing safeguards for AI.

Chandrasekhar added that while Altman supports the idea of a United Nations of AI, India will prioritize what is best for its citizens and ensure the internet remains safe and trusted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US later this month serves as a testament to the strong and enduring partnership between the two nations, an eminent Indian-American community leader has said.
Ajay Jain Bhutoria said PM Modi is very popular in the US because of development India has seen under him.

“As an Indian-American community leader, I’m very delighted to see the proposed visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States. This visit serves as a testament to the strong and enduring partnership between our two great nations. It reaffirms the warm bonds of family and friendship that unite the American and Indian people,” he said.

The significance of this visit is solidifying the alliance between the United States and India, as well as the advancing shared commitments to free, open, prosperous, and secure relations in the Pacific region, he said.

This state visit will provide an excellent opportunity to further strategic technological partnership between the United States and India, he said.

“I am sure the discussion could focus on key areas such as defense, clean energy, space, and educational exchanges, manufacturing in India, and fostering greater corporation in this critical sectors,” he said, adding there’s a potential for enhanced economic collaboration between United States and India.

“This visit holds immense potential for advancing the partnership between our two countries, particularly in the areas of manufacturing, semiconductor production, healthcare, education, and climate change. It presents an opportunity for both nations to further strengthen their economic ties and create new avenues for cooperation,” Mr Bhutoria said.

In terms of geopolitical, to counter the influence of China in the Asia-Pacific region, a strong political partnership between US and India is critical, he said.

Both of them need each other to build a strong partnership, whether the partnership in the form of QUAD between US, India, Japan, and Australia, and a stronger relationship between US and India is critical in addressing common challenges and ensuring stability in the region, he said.

“By working together, our countries can effectively address issues such as climate change, workforce development, health and security. The United States and India share a deep-rooted connection, and we need each other. Our partnership is built on shared values, interest and aspiration,” he said in response to a question.

“Together people of both the countries can achieve great things and foster a and safe more prosperous future for both our nations and the world. The oldest and the greatest and the largest democracies could lead the world in establishing greater peace and success in economic development around the world,” he said.

Prime Minister Modi, he said, is quite popular in the US.

“The Prime Minister of Australia told him that he (PM Modi) was more popular than the one of the greatest rockstars, and he called him the boss in Australia, where he got a huge round of response,” Mr Bhutoria said.

“And I heard in the media, President Biden said that there was a good trouble, which Prime Minister Modi was creating with his visit, where a large number of Indian-Americans were asking to visit the White House during his visit, he said.

“I’m hearing that there could be a few thousand Americans in the South Lawn, as part of the (White House) welcome ceremony. So definitely, I mean, he is very popular, because there’s a huge development, which has happened in India in the last few years, which could not have been imagined earlier. India is one of the largest economies and there’s a largest market as well as, now leading in the world in providing in all areas. So definitely that gives credibility to Prime Minister Modi’s popularity,” Mr Bhutoria said.

Eminent Indian-American entrepreneur MR Rangaswami has said that in the past three-four years, a lot of Indians who were living in the US and other countries, as well as, Indian venture capitalists and others invested heavily in India.

However, the period is over now. Those unicorns now are having challenging times with the recession, with these unicorns being funded at very high valuations.

“So, the market in India is correcting right now with these unicorns where some of them will disappear, some will merge, and others will have a challenging time getting to the next level where they can either have an exit or go public,” Rangaswami said.

He said investors in the US are monitoring the situation in the country and as a result, the flow of money into startups in India has slowed dramatically in the past 12 to 18 months.
Speaking about the Indian startup ecosystem, Rangaswami said, “There are some vestiges of old rules and regulations that need to be changed in India”.

According to the Indian-American entrepreneur, there are issues with the Angel Tax in India; issues dealing with incorporation and moving companies from India to the US require a lot of work; and companies coming back from the US to India require a lot of work.

He suggested that such rules need amendments to facilitate the easy movement of money and companies between India and the US.

Further Rangaswamy added that he has not seen any breakthrough technologies in India. ” Some of them tend to be copycat deals. They look like a US company, but working in an Indian model. Some tend to be add-ons and functional improvements to the software. But in terms of breakthrough technologies, we have not seen too many companies in India come out with that type of product or solution at this point,” he said.
Rangaswami said that successful Indian startups are coming to Silicon Valley to take a pie of the American market.

Around 300-400 highly successful Indian startups have moved to the US.

“This is a recent phenomenon, that’s happened in the past, three-four years when there is a lot of enterprise software as a service SaaS companies that were started in India, using Indian talent, Indian founders, but the customers happen to be in the US since US is the biggest IT market,” explained Rangaswami

Rangaswami is the founder of Indianspora. He said, “We are trying to see if these people need mentorship, can we mentor them? Can we advise them? Can we help them get funding? So, this is something that the Indiaspora group is figuring out at this point because a lot of our members here in the US are the leading VCs who have invested in these companies and these CEOs have come here”.

Rangaswami said, “People come to Silicon Valley, we are sitting here in San Francisco, people come here because of the craziest of entrepreneurs. The venture investors here also invest in those crazy ideas. The US market lets those companies kind of unfold and work out. For example, here in San Francisco, we have driverless cars running around the entire city”.

Calling the environment the biggest reason for innovation disruption, he said, “I’m not suggesting India become like the US, but in its own way, I think it’s improving and you’ll get its own kinds of innovation”.

 Talented people from across the world get attracted to Silicon Valley because it celebrates failure, an ecosystem that is found in no other parts of the world, an Indian American entrepreneur has said.

The world wants to be here in Silicon Valley. Right from the emerging economies to the Western economies, everybody wants a pie of Silicon Valley, Mateen Syed, advisor and investor to startups told PTI in an interview.

“It’s very simple. It’s not about geography. It’s not just about technology. A lot of people fail to understand this…Here as you must have heard this mantra many times, that failure is celebrated,” he said.

“Not because you fail, (but because) you will not repeat the same mistake again and the learnings you get from that mistake could be in corporate, the next venture. People (here are) willing to take a risk on you. There is no collateral when people invest in you. Just the mind they are investing in,” he said.

People in Silicon Valley invest in your capability and in your potential in the future, he said.
“And they don’t take any collateral back from you except of course equity in the company. But there’s nothing to hold onto for the money. If you go to banks or other lenders, you have to have collateral. And the mind is the only collateral you’re putting on the table (in Silicon Valley).

“So that risk, and of course that risk is, is smart money, the money comes with tonnes of experience of people,” he said.
Syed who participated in the Silicon Valley event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, said that the investors not only bring in investment but also domain area expertise that makes a startup succeed in the field.

“That is why it (Silicon Valley) is very unique and that is why it could not be replicated anywhere else in the world,” he said.
India, he said, is at a cusp where it is going to be the global leader.

“There is no doubt about it. India will continue to emerge and grow. Nobody can stop it, regardless of which government you support or don’t support. It is not about the government. Government can only facilitate growth. They cannot stop or change the pattern of growth. It’s going to continue,” he said.
Talking about the startup culture in India, he said India has the largest young population in the world and very brilliant people yearning to take on the world.

“I travel a lot to India. I talk to a lot of young startups and young students across India. I see the vibrance, I see the energy. Where I think we have to be very careful is I see a lot of avarice in young people. They think because of these unicorns it has become a sexy thing to do a startup,” he said.

“If you’re not good at anything, then you become a startup. No! The people that we hear about in Silicon Valley who have dropped out of college to build multi-billion-dollar companies are very, very few. They’re naturally very smart people, who apply their minds and energies to singularly focus cause. We cannot take that as a role model, apply across the board and yet say it’s okay to fail.
He said a startup is like any other enterprise and one has to be singularly focused on the value he is creating in a market.
“Either you’re disrupting or bringing value to your customer. If the customer is not willing to pay, you don’t have a game. On that, I’ve seen that, instead of focusing on fundamentals, there’s too much hype around it. We should cut that hype,” he said.
For long-term growth and sustainability and for India to emerge as a leader in startup space and innovation, there is a need to remain very grounded and look at fundamentals.

“India has to take the lead. There’s no question about it. But what is important for me is, can we go down to the basics and understand the fundamentals of how to become a good engineer, a good technician, a good marketing person, and a good CEO? And how do we get those things, fundamentals grounded into our youth and then grow from there?” Syed said.
“Avarice; I use that word because it’s all about money, chasing money. And that is not good here,” Syed said.
“Otherwise, I think all the ingredients are there. We have the finest education system in the world going back 70 years,” he added.

“And now you see, across Silicon Valley, is there any company where you don’t see, an Indian in a CXO position? It’s hard to find that company, right? It’s a great achievement for us. And we should continue this progress,” he added.