OpenAI eyes Indian developers
- Bengaluru summit in January to mark AI major’s commitment to India as it focuses on exploiting the country’s developer resources
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New Delhi: US-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm, OpenAI, will host its first-ever developer gathering in India next month, in Bengaluru. Speaking at a session in the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Summit here on Tuesday, Anna Makanju, vice president of global affairs at OpenAI, said this gathering will mark the beginning of OpenAI’s involvement in the India market.
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“We will hold a developer gathering with our vice-president of engineering, Srinivas Narayanan in Bangalore, in January—with more to follow. Our plan is to convene developers in India to work with OpenAI product leaders on some of the most difficult products and safety challenges," Makanju said.
Adding how such developer gatherings will fall in line with cross-border regulatory discussions, Makanju said, “Collaborations between Silicon Valley and Indian developers will help address some of the most important issues in AI. If you navigate the stress safely and responsibly, AI systems can create unparalleled economic abundance for the global economy, and take on challenges like global health and security."
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Makanju’s inputs come after a previous visit to India by OpenAI chief executive and founding member, Sam Altman, did not elicit any announcement on behalf of the company. So the company’s announcement of a January developer summit marked a potential operating entry for OpenAI into India—a nation that many stakeholders consider to be a hub for developers and software development resources worldwide.
This, she said, makes India a significant market to focus on for developer resources. “Young entrepreneurs and civil society leaders are clearly going to be the foundation of India’s future. As other countries work to create the educational building blocks to ensure that their workforces succeed in AI, we should all look to India—which has been successful for so long in developing top-tier technology talent," she said.
OpenAI, and other global technology stakeholders like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia, are part of the 29-nation delegations at GPAI 2023. By Thursday, India will seek to arrive at a consensus-based declaration that will look to establish a common regulatory approach towards establishing guardrails that prevent the use of AI for harmful purposes—while not hindering development.
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At a pre-Summit press briefing on Monday, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said alongside the previous GPAI agenda of promoting use of AI for healthcare, climate action and societal resilience, India’s GPAI approach includes the use of AI in sustainable agriculture, and in establishing a collaborative platform for researchers, academia and small businesses to make the most of AI—in line with India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model. Makanju added that OpenAI’s active projects include similar themes. “Last week, we announced that we’re partnering with Digital Green (a global sustainable development organization). They are partnering with the ministry of agriculture here in India to bring down the cost of agriculture extension services from $35 (~ ₹3,000) to 35 cents (~ ₹30). They’re doing this by using a chatbot called ‘WeStart’, to deliver on-demand location-specific agricultural guidance in several languages. More than 3,000 extension agents have had more than 30,000 conversations using it already—the tool will become available in 10 states by early 2024, and eventually be opened for access to all of India," she said.
Prime minister Narendra Modi also delivered the keynote at the GPAI 2023 Summit, stating that India’s focus over the next two days will be to create a road map towards the development of sustainable and responsible AI practices. Modi added that including more member nations from the global South will “automatically bring them into the fold of thought, and make AI an imperative for their policy approach going forward."
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