Transcript

Welcome to The Economic Times. And as we all know that Economic Times has been reporting very aggressively from the India Impact Summit. And right now I have the gentleman who are rewriting and writing the world with the word AI. I have in myself Mr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, he is the former director of the US National Science Foundation. I also thank you so much and I also have with myself Mr. Ajay Sood, who is the principal scientific advisor to the Government of India. It's an honor to talk to the both of you. Sir, we all know that AI Impact Summit has created. Of worldwide phenomenon it, India is right now at the forefront when it comes to AI. How do you feel for putting up a summit of this stature and where does it put us on the map right now according to you? Thank you very much. You look at the AI timeline in this country, which is going on for a while. But the big step was taken when India AI mission was implemented in 2024. What it meant was putting risk government resources for compute. For data kosh as well As for skilling. So what it and the startups. So what it meant was that India does not want. To be only an user of AI, it wants to contribute to India AI innovation. So that was the theme of the thought process behind this India AI mission where our office played some role and. The big issue is how do you govern a technology like AI? It's not easy. So we brought out a governance framework, not regulatory framework, as telling us what we have to do in each sector. And I'm glad to see that this effort to democratize access of AI compute facility has helped India a lot. From the government sector which made available 40,000 GPU, which our startups and yeah, what are you see here, those startups have used those compute facility and the data kosh, which means it's a non personalized data which can be used in a safe manner. And we already have 9000 such datasets on the AI mission. So what I would like to say is that AI mission is a catalyst or the accelerator, both. And now you will see the diffusion of AI into our lives, which is already happening, but it should happen with due care. And this is where I see country going forward. And this huge enthusiasm which you see is, I think, only a part of the story because much, much more will happen outside the pavilions. And it's already happening, absolutely. But the trend starts here at the AI Impact Summit and it will initiate fire that all of us. Square, so we have to talk about the trends as well. Is there any particular trend that you feel for India? Of course we are aggressively growing in every aspect when it comes to AI. But one trend you feel that we have picked up the 1st and the fastest. Like I feel linguistic AI is perhaps where we need to master it all. And of course operations, one layer you feel that we are mastering? No, I think the the fact that you are looking at many languages in the country and being able to be contextualizing AI and its benefits to all of the population with multiple languages. Because I think a unique facet of what is happening here, right? Because you have at least 22 beyond 22 languages where I've seen progress being made simultaneously. So that's a very, very good thing. The other thing is the proliferation of AI in every segment of society. Every nation wants to make sure that AI, one of the, your, you're talking before this interview, what, why AI? What is it doing for us? Essentially what it is, is that any technology is focused on bettering the, the human life, right? And this one has the capacity and the potential to do that in every aspect of our lives. That's what makes it unique is you can take a farmer, you can take an astronomer. It doesn't matter who it is, their work, their lives, and every aspect of their life is bound to be enriched, empowered, augmented. And therefore, you can express your talent, your ideas, and all the things that you want to do in not only your professional lives, personal lives can be impacted by AI in a positive way. And that's what makes it very exciting. And I think that possibility, you know, transcends, you know, any nation. But in India, there is a lot of possibilities. Here because there are sectors and segments of society which I think can be uplifted rather rapidly because of the proliferation of this technology. Absolutely, it is democratizing knowledge, wisdom and of course opportunities moving forward. Now talking about opportunities, India is indeed at the forefront and this I know you both are very busy. So this is going to be my final question for both gentlemen here, Why? Where do you feel India is going to be? We are already at I800 right now and we are aiming to be at the forefront moving forward. Where do you see us leading the entire globe in terms of AI moving forward? See, I think what we need to see, we don't need to really be in this rat race of big LM alone. That's not the way I look at it. What we need to see, what is good for us. So if 100 billion parameter model can do the job which we need. That is the way India has to go, so please see. That in the developing phase, AI has really gone ahead. When you talk of 1 trillion parameter model, it's not something one will become 2 trillion probably next year. But what is lacking is the deployment at scale. And deployment may not need this. What you are calling the 1 trillion parameter and so on. South India has to calibrate what it needs. And that is what I would say will be will be governed by the deployment access. So the deployment access will determine what we want to do. And another thing which will come in a big way which is not happening enough, how AI will do the science discovery. This part is probably not here in the Expo so much, but AI is making a huge difference in drug discovery, in material discovery. If you want materials for. Your spaceship. You don't have to do hit and trial. Yes, already the material discovery people are working on it. Drug discovery as you know Google alpha fold is a classic example where the this combination of antigen and the molecules and is already happening. So what I see is a huge future in AI for science and discovery. Yes, this is the space I feel India by its nature. To have something to contribute that is a golden ticket inside from you, Sir. Thank you so much. And So what about you? Why do you So I think I will take, I agree that science, scientific discovery is going to be enriched, enhanced. Now we have the Genesis project that has been launched in the United States, I think is a very powerful, powerful expression of how scientific discoveries can be advanced. But I want to anchor back to what you said earlier. You know, talent and ideas are democratized, but opportunities are not. So you, you talked about India. I think in India there is the potential for this. Massive talent that is across, you know, the geography of India, across the socioeconomic spectrum of India, right, The rich diversity that is here and the ability to be able to tap into that and actualize that I think is a unique opportunity. It's unique opportunity everywhere. Back in the United States were working on that quite, you know, intently. But in India also because the mass population that you have here, I think there's a good opportunity to express those ideas and talent and full form. And as I told you, this is the kind of insight that you can only get from the gentleman who are deep rooted into tech and deep rooted into making us understand how AI works. Thank you so much, gentlemen. Thank you for your time. It has been an absolute honor. Thank you so much, Sir. Thank you.