In a keynote speech at the MachineCon GCC Summit 2024, CP Gurnani, co-founder of AIonOS and former CEO of Tech Mahindra, challenged the notion that India could not develop its own LLMs and highlighted India’s rapid advancements in AI.
“Sam Altman challenged everybody that India will never be able to have an LLM,” Gurnani said, referring to OpenAI’s CEO. “I spoke to my chief innovation officer that time at Tech Mahindra… Six hours later, he says I have a plan,” he added.
Gurnani revealed that Tech Mahindra was able to develop an Indian LLM for local languages and 37+ dialects in just 5 months, spending less than $5 million. “When ET covered the 7 best AI companies, which will have an Indian LLM, they covered Tata, NVIDIA, and Tech Mahindra,” he said.
He further added, “Tata, NVIDIA, now you can assume what the budget would look like. And Tech Mahindra, I am happy to share that they spent less than 5 million dollars on what Sam Altman said, India will never be able to deliver.”
Grand Vision for India’s AI & Tech Landscape
The tech veteran argued that AI is now mainstream and part of our daily lives, but questioned whether enterprises have fully adopted the technology. However, he cited statistics suggesting AI could improve productivity by up to 40% in areas like customer experience, quality assurance, and sales.
Further, Gurnani confidently stated that the country looks confident to make strides in the tech and AI landscape and truly be Atmanirbhar. “I’m very convinced that in India, as the semiconductor industry develops, 5-7 years later, we would not be looking at someone else.”
As a comparative measure, Gurnani gave an Indian example and emphasised the importance of “frugal plus innovation plus technology plus people leadership” as the secret to success for Indian companies like IndiGo and Airtel in their competition with behemoths like Jio.
He also added that his own new venture, AIonOS, aims to transform industries like travel, logistics, hospitality and transportation using AI.
How is Project Indus Going to Fair?
Incidentally, Tech Mahindra launched its Project Indus today. This indigenous large language model (LLM) is designed to engage in conversations across a wide array of Indic languages and dialects, marking a significant step towards linguistic inclusivity in the realm of artificial intelligence.
In the initial phase, Project Indus will concentrate on developing an LLM specifically tailored for the Hindi language and its extensive range of over 37 dialects.
By focusing on this widely spoken language, Tech Mahindra aims to bridge the linguistic gap and empower a substantial portion of the population to interact with cutting-edge AI technology in their native tongue.
To bring Project Indus to life, Tech Mahindra has forged strategic collaborations with industry leaders Dell Technologies and Intel.
The model will be implemented using ‘GenAI in a Box’ solution, which harnesses the power of Dell Technologies’ state-of-the-art computing, storage, and networking capabilities.
Additionally, the solution incorporates Intel-based infrastructure, including Intel® Xeon® Processors and the OneAPI software suite, ensuring optimal performance and scalability.
Nikhil Malhotra, Global Head of Makers Lab at Tech Mahindra, expressed his enthusiasm for the project, stating, “Project Indus is our seminal effort to develop an LLM from the ground up. Through Makers Lab, our R&D arm, we created a roadmap, collected data from the Hindi-speaking population, and built the Indus model. Our collaboration with Dell Technologies & Intel will help deliver cutting-edge AI solutions that enable enterprises to scale at speed.”
The collaboration between Tech Mahindra, Dell Technologies, and Intel aims to revolutionise AI-driven solutions across various industries. By leveraging Tech Mahindra’s expertise in developing localized and verticalized industry-agnostic LLMs, the partnership will enable the creation of tailored use cases and applications in sectors such as healthcare, rural education, banking, agriculture, and telecom.
Denise Millard, Chief Partner Officer at Dell Technologies, emphasized the significance of accessibility and scalability in the adoption of GenAI.
“With the Dell AI Factory, LLMs like Project Indus leverage AI-optimized technologies with an open ecosystem of partners, validated and integrated solutions, services and best practices, accelerating the adoption of AI to drive growth, optimize productivity and promote innovation,” she remarked.
Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President & Managing Director for India at Intel, highlighted the company’s dedication to advancing the frontiers of AI. “We are proud to collaborate with Tech Mahindra on Project Indus, which will enable seamless deployment of advanced AI models across industries and empower enterprises to unlock GenAI’s full potential for enhanced operational efficiency and a competitive edge,” he stated.
Project Indus represents a pivotal milestone in the evolution of the global GenAI landscape, which is projected to expand to a staggering $1.3 trillion over the next decade. The model will initially prioritise key use cases and pilot projects, offering scalable AI solutions to enterprises.
Conclusively, as India strives for sovereignty and leadership in the AI landscape with AI initiatives, time will tell how Gurnani’s daring challenge and the product that came out of it will fare.
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