Fri Jan 24 07:35:54 UTC 2025: ## Indian AI Ambitions Fueled by Chinese Startup’s Success
**New Delhi, January 24, 2025** – The recent launch of DeepSeek’s R1 AI model, a Chinese startup’s creation surpassing OpenAI’s offerings at significantly lower costs, has sparked a call to action within India’s AI community. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, has pledged $1 million and five hours a week of his personal time to support the development of open-source foundational AI models in India.
Srinivas’s commitment is fueled by DeepSeek’s success in demonstrating that sophisticated AI models can be developed without massive financial investment. He believes this achievement should inspire India to shift its focus from reusing existing open-source models to building its own globally competitive capabilities, particularly for Indic languages. He challenged India to replicate the success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the field of artificial intelligence. His statement, posted on X, emphasizes the need for a dedicated and highly skilled team to create these models under an open-source MIT license. This development is prompting discussions among AI technologists regarding the potential for significantly lower-cost development of advanced AI models.
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