Sun Mar 23 18:50:00 UTC 2025: ## India Urged to Develop Indigenous AI Models to Compete Globally
**NEW DELHI** – India must cultivate its own artificial intelligence (AI) models and establish itself as a global AI leader, according to Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI. Speaking on Nikhil Kamath’s WTF podcast, Srinivas highlighted India’s immense untapped potential, advocating for homegrown innovation rather than reliance on foreign AI systems.
Srinivas championed the creation of Indian AI research companies similar to DeepMind, focusing on developing foundational models capable of superior reasoning and task execution. He stressed the importance of these models not only excelling in Indian languages but also achieving global benchmarks, inspiring future generations of Indian engineers.
For Indian startups looking to enter the AI field, Srinivas offered a three-pronged strategy: secure substantial funding, acquire a large user base, and secure further funding. He suggested a phased approach, starting with post-training on open-source models, progressing to pre-training, and ultimately investing in data centers.
Srinivas identified a significant opportunity in addressing the shortcomings of current AI systems in handling Indian languages. He noted the poor performance of existing AI in recognizing and synthesizing Indian voices and dialects, presenting a lucrative niche for Indian startups. Developing real-time AI voice synthesis compatible with all Indian languages, accents, and grammar would represent a major breakthrough, he explained. While acknowledging the challenges, he emphasized that leveraging India’s linguistic diversity could provide a significant competitive advantage.
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