Could We Build The Next AI Startup?
The age of AI is here. But, because AI is such a powerful tool, so much so that it can even be used to build destructive technologies, the US won't possibly share it with India. So, if that happens, would we be able to build our own AI that rivals OpenAI's ChatGPT?
We built the atomic bomb in 1974 under the guidance of Dr Raja Ramanna on the Pokhran test site and under the codename, 'smiling buddha'.
Then, we built the first supercomputer, the Param 8000 in 1991 under the guidance of Vijay Bhatkar.
And, in 2023, we successful launched the Chandrayaan 3 into orbit and it is expected to reach the moon on 23 August 2023.
With that being said, what would we need to build the next AI in India?
OpenAI's website itself says that it was built by training it on publically available data on the internet, data licensed from third parties and data provided from the human trainer or users provide.
This is the software side of things. As for the hardware, it used more than 10,000 Nvidia GPU and is planning on adding thousands more. Considering the fact that they used the top end GPUs that cost $1,200 each, the total cost of all the GPUs was $12 million or about Rs 96 crore. This is not that high of a cost considering that other startups get finding that is much higher that this amount.
And last, but not the least, is the talent needed for building his. That also shouldn't be a problem considering the quality of students our top engineering colleges put out.
The reason this is a question on the mind of many is because in a conference in India, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI responded negatively when asked about India's prospect of making something similar to ChatGPT. He said that it would be difficult for anyone, not just Indians, to replicate what OpenAI had done with ChatGPT.
Responding to this on Twitter, CP Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra said, 'challange accepted' implying that Tech Mahindra could look towards developing it's own AI.
In conclusion, we don’t know when India may develop an AI, but one thing is for sure, it will be very interesting to watch.