MUMBAI: India should build its own foundational AI models to compete globally, Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI said. It is not only important to get “the Indian languages right” but it is also essential to have the skillsets to do it and compete on the same benchmarks that everybody else competes on, Srinivas said. His comments come at a time when the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that built its own AI model at a much cheaper cost sparked debate on whether India should create its own foundational models.
India needs the capability to train AI models independently, Srinivas said. “That’s the only way to make sure we have the muscles to train these models ourselves. The next generation of engineers should have something to feel inspired by,” Srinivas said at the virtual launch of the US-based AI startup’spartnership with Paytm on Thursday.
Paytm has integrated an AI-powered search within its app, powered by Perplexity AI. The move, the fintech said, will enable users to ask everyday questions, explore topics in local languages and make informed financial decisions. The idea behind the partnership is to add new AI-first features that can become profit drivers for the company in a year or two, said Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Paytm has already been betting on AI to cut employee costs and streamline its systems. “We will continue to leverage AI to optimise costs but this partnership is about adding AI-first features that are revenue accretive...the one thing I am phenomenally surprised by is AI based products don’t require large amount of human manpower,” Sharma said.
The partnership with Perplexity AI will not allow sharing of customers’ financial data with the US startup, Sharma added.
Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays, public holidays, current gold rate and silver price.
Start a Conversation
Post comment