Perplexity AI CEO Arvind Srinivas publicly disagreed with Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani’s views on AI, advocating for India to focus on AI model development and real-world AI applications.
Mr Srinivas shared his views on X and praised Nandan Nilekani as “wonderful” for his unique contribution to India’s technological progress through initiatives like Infosys and UPI. However, he expressed concern over Nilekani’s advice to Indian AI startups and urged them to focus exclusively on developing practical AI applications rather than training large language models (LLMs).
Mr Srinivas wrote on It is necessary to do both on top of existing models.”
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I am willing to personally invest $1mm and 5 hours/week of my time to make India great again in terms of AI in a group of the most qualified people who can do it right now. Treat it as a commitment that can’t be taken back. The team has to crack and…
– Arvind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) 22 January 2025
Mr Srinivas’s comments were in response to Nilekani’s statements at the Meta AI Summit in October, where Nilekani urged Indian startups to move away from the expensive pursuit of building large AI models and instead prioritize developing practical, resource-efficient AI solutions. Was advised.
“Our goal should not be to create another LLM. Let the big boys of (Silicon) Valley do it by spending billions of dollars. We will use it to create synthetic data, quickly build small language models and train them using appropriate Data,” Mr Nilekani had said.
He underlined the importance of scalable, cost-effective infrastructure and practical applications specifically tailored to the specific needs of India.
However, Mr Srinivas offered a different perspective, advocating a more ambitious approach to AI development in the country. Drawing from his own experience, he argued that India risks missing out on training AI models due to the misconception that the financial costs are unbearable.
“I think India is falling into the same trap that I did when I ran Perplexity – assuming that training models would cost exorbitant amounts of money,” Srinivas said. He urged Indian startups to move beyond relying solely on open-source models and instead focus on building proprietary AI capabilities to gain global competitiveness, especially in areas like Indic languages.
Srinivas encouraged India to adopt an equally resourceful and adventurous mindset in AI development, saying, “Elon Musk praised ISRO – not even Blue Origin – because he respects people who spend enormously Can achieve great things without. That’s his operating philosophy.”
He concluded with a call for a paradigm shift in India’s AI strategy, emphasizing the need to develop expertise in training basic AI models that can meet local needs and compete globally. Offering his support, Srinivas expressed his willingness to assist anyone “passionate enough” to take up this challenge, promising to help open-source AI models to broader impact.
