Anand Mahindra Discusses Possibility of India Developing a ChatGPT-like Language Model with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Clears Misconceptions

Earlier this month, Sam Altman, the founder and CEO of OpenAI, traveled to India to raise awareness about the potential and dangers of artificial intelligence. While attending an event with prominent startup founders and business heads, Altman made a controversial statement in response to a question about India’s ability to build a ChatGPT-like large language model (LLM), stating that it was “completely hopeless.” Recently, Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra Group, met with the ChatGPT creator at a state dinner hosted by US President Joe Biden to discuss his views on India’s technological innovation capabilities.

Anand Mahindra meets Sam Altman at a state dinner

Also called the ‘India-US Hi-Tech Handshake’, the state dinner was attended by some of the world’s top technology leaders, including Anand Mahindra, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Indra Nooyi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook and others will share a table with Prime Minister Modi and US President Biden to discuss cooperation in building technology infrastructure in both countries.

Mahindra also had the opportunity to speak with Altman during the event and talk about the ChatGPT challenge. But that turns out to be a misunderstanding. Clarifying in his tweet, he said, “The Tech Handshake meeting this morning at the White House was refreshingly honest… On the sidelines of the meeting, I met with Sam Altman about the ‘challenge’ accepted by @C_P_Gurnani. Sam reiterated that he had been misunderstood. He is by no means skeptical of the Indian in terms of abilities.

Referring to the event itself, Mahindra mentioned, “Optimism about intensifying technology cooperation stems from the fact that mutual benefit is now involved and not just a one-way request from India”.

Sam Altman’s comment that started the controversy

Private equity investor and former head of Google India Rajan Anandan asked Sam Altman how an Indian entrepreneur can build his own version of the fundamental AI model.

Altman had said, “This works, we’re going to tell you that it’s completely hopeless to challenge us in basic model training, and you shouldn’t even try it. And it’s your job to try it anyway. And I believe in both of those things. I think it’s pretty hopeless anyway.”

The comment led to many prominent tech executives challenging Altman’s response. Among them was Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, who said: “OpenAI founder Sam Altman said it’s pretty hopeless for Indian companies to try to compete with them. Dear @sama, CEO to CEO. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”.

A day later, Altman explained in a tweet responding to Gurnan that he had been misunderstood. He said: “This is really out of context! the question was about competing with us for $10 million, which I don’t think really works. but I still said try! I think it’s the wrong question though.”

“The real question is, what can a startup do that has never been done before, that brings something new to the world. I have no doubt that Indian startups can and will do it! and no one but the builders can answer that question,” he added.