Government to unveil indigenous AI models at global summit; Vaishnaw says AI evolution 'just first innings'

The government expects to launch indigenously developed AI models during the upcoming India AI Impact Summit, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday. He emphasised that the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is still at an early stage, describing it as "just the first innings" in a multi-test series.

At a press briefing on the summit, Vaishnaw said there is huge enthusiasm for India AI Impact across the world and expects the investment commitment of $70 billion for AI infrastructure to double by the time the summit concludes.

"A few weeks ago, honourable PM (Prime Minister) interacted with the teams, which are developing the stack of sovereign models. Very happy to share with you that the models are in very good shape and we should be launching those models in the AI Impact Summit," Vaishnaw said.

The minister also pointed to the growing appeal of smaller models over large, frontier AI models, citing rapid shifts in computing in the past, from mainframes to personal computers, and noted just how quickly dominant technologies can be disrupted.

"In a multi-test series, this is just the first innings. We have seen the transition that happened in the computer world from the mainframe to PC, the transition was so sudden...just within a few years. I won't be surprised, going forward, the way AI is being used today or the way AI models are being trained today...will change significantly in the coming years, even coming months, maybe. Things are changing rapidly," Vaishnaw said.

The minister said the upcoming international event is going to be the fourth and biggest AI summit so far in the world. "We clearly have about $70 billion worth of investment already getting into the execution phase. The way we see the enthusiasm, we shouldn't be surprised if this number doubles by the time the AI Impact Summit is over," he said.

He said that there have been responses from over 100 countries, with 15 governments confirming participation of state heads, and more than 100 top global leaders in the AI space will be at the summit. The minister did not disclose details of the state heads who will participate in the event.

Vaishnaw said AI industry leaders, including Jensen Huang (Founder and CEO, NVIDIA), Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Gates Foundation Chair Bill Gates, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, Bharti Enterprises Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, have confirmed their participation.

The minister noted that global experts he interacted with at the recently-concluded World Economic Forum believe smaller AI models capable of running on laptops, without massive computing infrastructure, are already good enough to solve most problems faced by large enterprises.

"Specialisation will be key, having a large encyclopedia kind of model versus having a focused solution provider, those things will be big questions. So, we have to navigate this change in a thoughtful manner and a manner where our capital, talent, HR and IT industry strength can be best utilised in the coming years," he said.

Ministry of Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan said the central objective of the India AI Impact Summit is to advance the democratisation of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, to ensure that its benefits reach a wide cross-section of society.

He noted that as the first global AI summit being hosted in the Global South, the summit places emphasis on aligning approaches to AI governance and standards, with the aim of fostering a shared global understanding on the safe and responsible deployment of AI in real-world applications.

India AI Impact Summit will be the first-ever global AI summit in the Global South. It will be held from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam.

(With inputs from PTI)