OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to visit India this week and is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The government is keen on using open-source models to build the country's first foundational AI model.
Data privacy remains a key concern, especially when using foreign AI models.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to visit India this week and is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw. His visit comes as India looks to strike a balance between developing its own AI models and leveraging existing AI technologies.
SurveyS Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), recently spoke about India’s AI ambitions at a town hall event hosted by CNBC-TV18. He highlighted that the government is keen on using open-source models to build the country’s first foundational AI model. However, it is also open to exploring partnerships with existing AI companies, including OpenAI.
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Krishnan mentioned that the government is open to exploring potential cooperation with OpenAI, but clarified that ChatGPT is not an open-source model. “Our models will have to be built on open-source foundations,” he said. This indicates that India wants to ensure transparency and control over its AI development while still learning from global advancements.
Krishnan also highlighted Deepseek as an example of a hybrid approach to AI development. “DeepSeek has shown that you can take certain parts of another model and then build on that,” he explained. However, he pointed out a major challenge—uncertainty regarding the training data used in these models.
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Data privacy remains a key concern, especially when using foreign AI models. “If you use DeepSeek as an app, it’s likely that the data travels to their servers,” Krishnan said. To address this, he suggested a solution: “We can pick up DeepSeek, host it on Indian servers, so that data stays here in India.” This would allow India to benefit from AI advancements while keeping user data secure.
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Ayushi Jain
Tech news writer by day, BGMI player by night. Combining my passion for tech and gaming to bring you the latest in both worlds. View Full Profile
