All kinds of things and I can be very pleased with myself. So that's probably very high. But when you get to a group, the productivity drops because you have coordination costs getting people together. When you take it to an enterprise, it drops even further. And you take it to a society, it drops. So I think while there is productivity benefit, we cannot extrapolate from an individual becoming more productive to a society becoming more productive, and that's the fallacy of all this. So I think yes, there will be productivity gains and definitely things will have a substantial impact, but it'll not be at the pace of how an individual improves.
Last one on governments. Do you find generally governments are willing to integrate AI into workflows and see it as part of their future? Do you see a lot of hesitancy?
Certainly. I think India will embrace AI for the reason that Indians have seen the power of digital in their world. Right? Today we have a woman in a village can get an Aadhaar. With Aadhaar she can open a bank account, get a mobile connection. She can start a small shop, borrow some money, start selling vegetables or coconuts. She can get a digital history of that with UPI. She can take that history and use the account aggregator system and get a loan and grow her business. So we have created a path of aspiration for a billion people. So they all see the power of technology. So because they see that, they are positively disposed towards technology, and that's what makes India the ideal place to try out all these things to make AI work for people.
Good note to go to people. That's all of you there. Perhaps I could turn to the Raisina fellows to start with. I see a lot of hands up. The Raisina fellows, if anyone, I'm going to privilege you first. So if you have any particular questions...
How do you know he's a Raisina fellow? Yeah, they're all in one block, sir, so we've got them in.
Yeah. Any questions from this side of the room? Yeah, please go ahead.
Can we get the gentleman a mic?
I think you just have to walk up to the mic there.
Yeah. Hello. Sir, I am Abhishek Jen. I am the Raisina Young Fellow for this year. So I am a semiconductor professional and my question is basically on what you said. So as AI models are becoming concentrated in a few global companies or countries like US and China as you said, how can countries like India avoid becoming merely AI consumers rather than AI creators? Right? So as you know, in semiconductor we have lost on the manufacturing in India. Are we risking the same thing with the AI LLM models and technology? So from consumer to producer, how can we actually, on the back to the models question?
Yeah, so I think the way to think about it is it's about timing. Right now we should deploy it to make a difference, and that's very hard to do by the way, it's not easy to pull it off. We have to make that happen. And over time the models will proliferate as it is already happening. The models will become cheaper to build and the knowledge of building models will become ubiquitous. At that time you build your own model. It's not a big deal. Why? It's just a question of sequencing it.
Okay. Thank you. It's a good challenge I think for you guys there. Yeah. Next one. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Utkash. I'm a Raisina Young Fellow from the 19 cohort. You touched upon productivity at national levels, individual levels, society levels. I was wondering if you had any comments on what happens to achievement which is far more subjective, and a lot of philosophers say that the sense of achievement with the infusion of AI tends to drop.
Well, I think... are we going to become dumber? No. I think that's why we need to think of AI as a way of amplifying human potential, amplifying human ability, allowing humans to strive to achieve more. And I think that's the way to get AI going. I think if you agree with you, it's something that does everything for you, then you know, you stop thinking. So definitely, at least the work that we do is how to make AI amplify human skills and achievements.
Yeah, we got another question there. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm Wim, co-founder of a quantum tech startup based in London. My question is where do you see and also how do you see AI and quantum technologies converging in the future to have the most impact in India?
AI and quantum, what's the equation there? No, I think there are many implications of quantum when it comes. It's going to have an impact on cryptography. It'll have an impact on building a computer that will be even more powerful which AI will use. So I think they will have an interplay in the future but that's still down the road.
Namaskar. My name is Srian Kumar Prasad. So I have a question related to Aadhaar. Like why masked Aadhaar is not implemented nationwide? Because unmasked Aadhaar, when you say that a woman at a village can get her rations or any other essential services easily, but she can also be a victim for cyber crime because of the unmasked Aadhaar. So why not implement masked Aadhaar throughout the nation?
Right. So Aadhaar, cyber crime, how do we square that circle? No, he said something about the masked versions. Yeah, but ultimately you see the number is valid when it's used online and only the person whose number it is issued can use it online. So that's how you would prevent anything.
Section 46 of Aadhaar Act 2016 says that must inform users of alternate identification methods and shall not deny services. But in India we see that denial of services are done because when we are not able to give the Aadhaar...
Okay, same question on masked essentially. So I'm going to take it to the right of the room now. I think I saw a hand up over there. Please go ahead. Yeah. Could we get a mic please?
There are mics there. Yeah. You can run to the mic. You can even come up on stage.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Somia. I'm a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. Since last two days we've been discussing the significance of AI in various aspects of our country's life and so on. I wanted to specifically ask that can we think of AI being used for let's say war gaming scenarios so that our armed forces are better prepared? Because we acknowledge its significance but we don't talk about solutions or preparedness as much as we should. So anything from the creator? Thank you.
No, no. I'm sure, I mean obviously you can go to a whole new level of wargaming with AI but I don't know the status of that.
Can I push you on that for one sec? So, we're seeing a bit of a drama play out in the US right now between Anthropic and we just hosted Dario for the summit and the Department of War. Does that tension worry you as someone who wants to diffuse this stuff for global good?
Well, I think it's adding to the debate and it's an interesting debate because essentially the government is saying that as long as we're doing lawful things with the technology, we have the right to do that. And Dario is saying that there are certain uses that I'd like to prohibit. So that's for them to sort out. But I think it only goes back to my point which is that we have to bring AI to a place where it's benefiting people. And if you don't do that, sooner or later there'll be a backlash or what's now called a botlash. So I think this is only adding to that. I mean, how does it make my life better? Every morning I get up, how does my life become better with AI? That's the question we have to answer. So diffusion, diffusion, diffusion. Yes, please go ahead.
Hello. Okay. Shall we start with the gentleman with the black shirt first?
Yeah. Thank you, sir. I am Arindam Goswami. I run a startup out of northeast India and we work with a lot of MSME and small business owners from my region. So given my region has a lot of language diversity, something that's probably even more than from the rest of India, a common pain point that we've always noticed is that because you're not able to speak this number of languages, you're not actually able to access that number of people. So how about Infosys and how could we basically come up with frameworks that could help us bridge that gap?
Well, no, I think there is already, by the way, it's happening. We have this thing called AI for Bharat at IIT which is coming out with all 22 Indian major languages. They're also working with the less resourced languages. Recently in the Maharashtra case, there's Mahavistar which is in Marathi but there's a tribe called the Bhils who speak Bhili which is a very specific tribal language. Now they brought that up to speed and now you can ask questions and answer them in Bhili. So now we have the infrastructure in India to take to every Indian language in a matter of a few weeks or months. So I think it can be done also in the northeast.
Are you worried about... So we celebrated Sarvam's growth at the AI Impact Summit. So Sarvam was a big part of the summit. Are you worried about now what Sarvam needs to do to serve a billion people?
No, I think that they are doing a very good job of not only building these models, they're designing it frugally. The cost is a big thing. I think inference cost has to be at Indian rupee cost, not dollar cost. So I think they're doing all the right things.
And perhaps the last question. Yeah.
My name is Rahul. My question is so simple. Will India become an AI producer or a consumer? Because we were enslaved by using first and second industrial revolutions. We are in a very important fourth industrial revolution.
So see, as I said, making it work in the real world for real people at billion scale is incredibly complicated. We should do that and then as the costs go down of building models, as the cost goes down and the capability goes up, we'll build any number of models. It's not a big deal. But I think one thing that's become clear with even the questions that we have here is we have to do a better job of explaining diffusion.
Yeah. And one would think it's intuitive. If AI can benefit you as an individual, as a farmer, as a teacher, something will work out. Markets will work out, revenue. But it's clear that everyone's fixated on models. So at some level, I'm guessing this will have to be diffused. Last question to you, Mr. Nilekani. You unlocked digital infrastructure in India and large parts of the world. You're in the process of unlocking AI, we hope. What's the next unlock for Nandan Nilekani?
That's good enough. Yeah.
Okay. No, there's got to be an answer. There's got to be something that bugs you. This is it. After AI, I'm done.
Wow, that's a showstopper there itself. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Rudra. And of course, thank you so much, Mr. Nilekani, for taking out the time and joining us at Raisina. I think Samir wants to be in the photo. So there's the abundance lot again, the abundance lot in California, there's the frugality lot over here, and then there's the how do you achieve productive gain. What's your take on this?
No, I think productivity, definitely AI has a lot of potential of productivity gain but I think we should distinguish between individual productivity, group productivity, enterprise productivity and national productivity. So individual productivity is a no-brainer. You know, I can use these tools, use a co-pilot for this and that and do all kinds of things and I can be very pleased with myself. So that's probably very high. But when you get to a group, the productivity drops because you have coordination costs getting people together. When you take it to an enterprise, it drops even further. And you take it to a society, it drops. So I think while there is productivity benefit, we cannot extrapolate from an individual becoming more productive to a society becoming more productive, and that's the fallacy of all this. So I think yes, there will be productivity gains and definitely things will have a substantial impact, but it'll not be at the pace of how an individual improves.
And last one on governments. Do you find generally governments are willing to integrate AI into workflows and see it as part of their future? Do you see a lot of hesitancy?
Certainly. I think India will embrace AI for the reason that Indians have seen the power of digital in their world. Right? Today we have a woman in a village can get an Aadhaar. With Aadhaar she can open a bank account, get a mobile connection. She can start a small shop, borrow some money, start selling vegetables or coconuts. She can get a digital history of that with UPI. She can take that history and use the account aggregator system and get a loan and grow her business. So we have created a path of aspiration for a billion people. So they all see the power of technology. So because they see that, they are positively disposed towards technology, and that's what makes India the ideal place to try out all these things to make AI work for people.
Good note to go to people. That's all of you there. Perhaps I could turn to the Raisina fellows to start with. I see a lot of hands up. The Raisina fellows, if anyone, I'm going to privilege you first. So if you have any particular questions...
How do you know he's a Raisina fellow? Yeah, they're all in one block, sir, so we've got them in.
Yeah. Any questions from this side of the room? Yeah, please go ahead.
Can we get the gentleman a mic?
I think you just have to walk up to the mic there.
Yeah. Hello. Sir, I am Abhishek Jen. I am the Raisina Young Fellow for this year. So I am a semiconductor professional and my question is basically on what you said. So as AI models are becoming concentrated in a few global companies or countries like US and China as you said, how can countries like India avoid becoming merely AI consumers rather than AI creators? Right? So as you know, in semiconductor we have lost on the manufacturing in India. Are we risking the same thing with the AI LLM models and technology? So from consumer to producer, how can we actually, on the back to the models question?
Yeah, so I think the way to think about it is it's about timing. Right now we should deploy it to make a difference, and that's very hard to do by the way, it's not easy to pull it off. We have to make that happen. And over time the models will proliferate as it is already happening. The models will become cheaper to build and the knowledge of building models will become ubiquitous. At that time you build your own model. It's not a big deal. Why? It's just a question of sequencing it.
Okay. Thank you. It's a good challenge I think for you guys there. Yeah. Next one. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Utkash. I'm a Raisina Young Fellow from the 19 cohort. You touched upon productivity at national levels, individual levels, society levels. I was wondering if you had any comments on what happens to achievement which is far more subjective, and a lot of philosophers say that the sense of achievement with the infusion of AI tends to drop.
Well, I think... are we going to become dumber? No. I think that's why we need to think of AI as a way of amplifying human potential, amplifying human ability, allowing humans to strive to achieve more. And I think that's the way to get AI going. I think if you agree with you, it's something that does everything for you, then you know, you stop thinking. So definitely, at least the work that we do is how to make AI amplify human skills and achievements.
Yeah, we got another question there. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm Wim, co-founder of a quantum tech startup based in London. My question is where do you see and also how do you see AI and quantum technologies converging in the future to have the most impact in India?
AI and quantum, what's the equation there? No, I think there are many implications of quantum when it comes. It's going to have an impact on cryptography. It'll have an impact on building a computer that will be even more powerful which AI will use. So I think they will have an interplay in the future but that's still down the road.
Namaskar. My name is Srian Kumar Prasad. So I have a question related to Aadhaar. Like why masked Aadhaar is not implemented nationwide? Because unmasked Aadhaar, when you say that a woman at a village can get her rations or any other essential services easily, but she can also be a victim for cyber crime because of the unmasked Aadhaar. So why not implement masked Aadhaar throughout the nation?
Right. So Aadhaar, cyber crime, how do we square that circle? No, he said something about the masked versions. Yeah, but ultimately you see the number is valid when it's used online and only the person whose number it is issued can use it online. So that's how you would prevent anything.
Section 46 of Aadhaar Act 2016 says that must inform users of alternate identification methods and shall not deny services. But in India we see that denial of services are done because when we are not able to give the Aadhaar...
Okay, same question on masked essentially. So I'm going to take it to the right of the room now. I think I saw a hand up over there. Please go ahead. Yeah. Could we get a mic please?
Yeah. You can run to the mic. You can even come up on stage.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Somia. I'm a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. Since last two days we've been discussing the significance of AI in various aspects of our country's life and so on. I wanted to specifically ask that can we think of AI being used for let's say war gaming scenarios so that our armed forces are better prepared? Because we acknowledge its significance but we don't talk about solutions or preparedness as much as we should. So anything from the creator? Thank you.
No, no. I'm sure, I mean obviously you can go to a whole new level of wargaming with AI but I don't know the status of that.
Can I push you on that for one sec? So, we're seeing a bit of a drama play out in the US right now between Anthropic and we just hosted Dario for the summit and the Department of War. Does that tension worry you as someone who wants to diffuse this stuff for global good?
Well, I think it's adding to the debate and it's an interesting debate because essentially the government is saying that as long as we're doing lawful things with the technology, we have the right to do that. And Dario is saying that there are certain uses that I'd like to prohibit. So that's for them to sort out. But I think it only goes back to my point which is that we have to bring AI to a place where it's benefiting people. And if you don't do that, sooner or later there'll be a backlash or what's now called a botlash. So I think this is only adding to that. I mean, how does it make my life better? Every morning I get up, how does my life become better with AI? That's the question we have to answer. So diffusion, diffusion, diffusion. Yes, please go ahead.
Hello. Okay, shall we start with the gentleman in the black shirt first?
Yeah. Thank you, sir. I am Arindam Goswami. I run a startup out of northeast India and we work with a lot of MSME and small business owners from my region. So given my region has a lot of language diversity, something that's probably even more than from the rest of India, a common pain point that we've always noticed is that because you're not able to speak this number of languages, you're not actually able to access that number of people. So how about Infosys and how could we basically come up with frameworks that could help us bridge that gap?
Well, no, I think there is already, by the way, it's happening. We have this thing called AI for Bharat at IIT which is coming out with all 22 Indian major languages. They're also working with the less resourced languages. Recently in the Maharashtra case, there's Mahavistar which is in Marathi but there's a tribe called the Bhils who speak Bhili which is a very specific tribal language. Now they brought that up to speed and now you can ask questions and answer them in Bhili. So now we have the infrastructure in India to take to every Indian language in a matter of a few weeks or months. So I think it can be done also in the northeast.
Are you worried about... So we celebrated Sarvam's growth at the AI Impact Summit. So Sarvam was a big part of the summit. Are you worried about now what Sarvam needs to do to serve a billion people?
No, I think that they are doing a very good job of not only building these models, they're designing it frugally. The cost is a big thing. I think inference cost has to be at Indian rupee cost, not dollar cost. So I think they're doing all the right things.
And perhaps the last question. Yeah.
My name is Rahul. My question is so simple. Will India become an AI producer or a consumer? Because we were enslaved by using first and second industrial revolutions. We are in a very important fourth industrial revolution.
So see, as I said, making it work in the real world for real people at billion scale is incredibly complicated. We should do that and then as the costs go down of building models, as the cost goes down and the capability goes up, we'll build any number of models. It's not a big deal. But I think one thing that's become clear with even the questions that we have here is we have to do a better job of explaining diffusion.
Yeah. And one would think it's intuitive. If AI can benefit you as an individual, as a farmer, as a teacher, something will work out. Markets will work out, revenue. But it's clear that everyone's fixated on models. So at some level, I'm guessing this will have to be diffused. Last question to you, Mr. Nilekani. You unlocked digital infrastructure in India and large parts of the world. You're in the process of unlocking AI, we hope. What's the next unlock for Nandan Nilekani?
That's good enough. Yeah.
Okay. No, there's got to be an answer. There's got to be something that bugs you. This is it. After AI, I'm done.
Wow, that's a showstopper there itself. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Rudra. And of course, thank you so much, Mr. Nilekani, for taking out the time and joining us at Raisina. I think Samir wants to be in the photo. So there's the abundance lot again, the abundance lot in California, there's the frugality lot over here, and then there's the how do you achieve productive gain. What's your take on this?
No, I think productivity, definitely AI has a lot of potential of productivity gain but I think we should distinguish between individual productivity, group productivity, enterprise productivity and national productivity. So individual productivity is a no-brainer. You know, I can use these tools, use a co-pilot for this and that and do all kinds of things and I can be very pleased with myself. So that's probably very high. But when you get to a group, the productivity drops because you have coordination costs getting people together. When you take it to an enterprise, it drops even further. And you take it to a society, it drops. So I think while there is productivity benefit, we cannot extrapolate from an individual becoming more productive to a society becoming more productive, and that's the fallacy of all this. So I think yes, there will be productivity gains and definitely things will have a substantial impact, but it'll not be at the pace of how an individual improves.
And last one on governments. Do you find generally governments are willing to integrate AI into workflows and see it as part of their future? Do you see a lot of hesitancy?
Certainly. I think India will embrace AI for the reason that Indians have seen the power of digital in their world. Right? Today we have a woman in a village can get an Aadhaar. With Aadhaar she can open a bank account, get a mobile connection. She can start a small shop, borrow some money, start selling vegetables or coconuts. She can get a digital history of that with UPI. She can take that history and use the account aggregator system and get a loan and grow her business. So we have created a path of aspiration for a billion people. So they all see the power of technology. So because they see that, they are positively disposed towards technology, and that's what makes India the ideal place to try out all these things to make AI work for people.
Good note to go to people. That's all of you there. Perhaps I could turn to the Raisina fellows to start with. I see a lot of hands up. The Raisina fellows, if anyone, I'm going to privilege you first. So if you have any particular questions...
How do you know he's a Raisina fellow? Yeah, they're all in one block, sir, so we've got them in.
Yeah. Any questions from this side of the room? Yeah, please go ahead.
Can we get the gentleman a mic?
I think you just have to walk up to the mic there.
Yeah. Hello. Sir, I am Abhishek Jen. I am the Raisina Young Fellow for this year. So I am a semiconductor professional and my question is basically on what you said. So as AI models are becoming concentrated in a few global companies or countries like US and China as you said, how can countries like India avoid becoming merely AI consumers rather than AI creators? Right? So as you know, in semiconductor we have lost on the manufacturing in India. Are we risking the same thing with the AI LLM models and technology? So from consumer to producer, how can we actually, on the back to the models question?
Yeah, so I think the way to think about it is it's about timing. Right now we should deploy it to make a difference, and that's very hard to do by the way, it's not easy to pull it off. We have to make that happen. And over time the models will proliferate as it is already happening. The models will become cheaper to build and the knowledge of building models will become ubiquitous. At that time you build your own model. It's not a big deal. Why? It's just a question of sequencing it.
Okay. Thank you. It's a good challenge I think for you guys there. Yeah. Next one. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Utkash. I'm a Raisina Young Fellow from the 19 cohort. You touched upon productivity at national levels, individual levels, society levels. I was wondering if you had any comments on what happens to achievement which is far more subjective, and a lot of philosophers say that the sense of achievement with the infusion of AI tends to drop.
Well, I think... are we going to become dumber? No. I think that's why we need to think of AI as a way of amplifying human potential, amplifying human ability, allowing humans to strive to achieve more. And I think that's the way to get AI going. I think if you agree with you, it's something that does everything for you, then you know, you stop thinking. So definitely, at least the work that we do is how to make AI amplify human skills and achievements.
Yeah, we got another question there. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm Wim, co-founder of a quantum tech startup based in London. My question is where do you see and also how do you see AI and quantum technologies converging in the future to have the most impact in India?
AI and quantum, what's the equation there? No, I think there are many implications of quantum when it comes. It's going to have an impact on cryptography. It'll have an impact on building a computer that will be even more powerful which AI will use. So I think they will have an interplay in the future but that's still down the road.
Namaskar. My name is Srian Kumar Prasad. So I have a question related to Aadhaar. Like why masked Aadhaar is not implemented nationwide? Because unmasked Aadhaar, when you say that a woman at a village can get her rations or any other essential services easily, but she can also be a victim for cyber crime because of the unmasked Aadhaar. So why not implement masked Aadhaar throughout the nation?
Right. So Aadhaar, cyber crime, how do we square that circle? No, he said something about the masked versions. Yeah, but ultimately you see the number is valid when it's used online and only the person whose number it is issued can use it online. So that's how you would prevent anything.
Section 46 of Aadhaar Act 2016 says that must inform users of alternate identification methods and shall not deny services. But in India we see that denial of services are done because when we are not able to give the Aadhaar...
Okay, same question on masked essentially. So I'm going to take it to the right of the room now. I think I saw a hand up over there. Please go ahead. Yeah. Could we get a mic please?
There are mics there. Yeah. You can run to the mic. You can even come up on stage.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Somia. I'm a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. Since last two days we've been discussing the significance of AI in various aspects of our country's life and so on. I wanted to specifically ask that can we think of AI being used for let's say war gaming scenarios so that our armed forces are better prepared? Because we acknowledge its significance but we don't talk about solutions or preparedness as much as we should. So anything from the creator? Thank you.
No, no. I'm sure, I mean obviously you can go to a whole new level of wargaming with AI but I don't know the status of that.
Can I push you on that for one sec? So, we're seeing a bit of a drama play out in the US right now between Anthropic and we just hosted Dario for the summit and the Department of War. Does that tension worry you as someone who wants to diffuse this stuff for global good?
Well, I think it's adding to the debate and it's an interesting debate because essentially the government is saying that as long as we're doing lawful things with the technology, we have the right to do that. And Dario is saying that there are certain uses that I'd like to prohibit. So that's for them to sort out. But I think it only goes back to my point which is that we have to bring AI to a place where it's benefiting people. And if you don't do that, sooner or later there'll be a backlash or what's now called a botlash. So I think this is only adding to that. I mean, how does it make my life better? Every morning I get up, how does my life become better with AI? That's the question we have to answer. So diffusion, diffusion, diffusion. Yes, please go ahead.
Hello. Okay, shall we start with the gentleman in the black shirt first?
Yeah. Thank you, sir. I am Arindam Goswami. I run a startup out of northeast India and we work with a lot of MSME and small business owners from my region. So given my region has a lot of language diversity, something that's probably even more than from the rest of India, a common pain point that we've always noticed is that because you're not able to speak this number of languages, you're not actually able to access that number of people. So how about Infosys and how could we basically come up with frameworks that could help us bridge that gap?
Well, no, I think there is already, by the way, it's happening. We have this thing called AI for Bharat at IIT which is coming out with all 22 Indian major languages. They're also working with the less resourced languages. Recently in the Maharashtra case, there's Mahavistar which is in Marathi but there's a tribe called the Bhils who speak Bhili which is a very specific tribal language. Now they brought that up to speed and now you can ask questions and answer them in Bhili. So now we have the infrastructure in India to take to every Indian language in a matter of a few weeks or months. So I think it can be done also in the northeast.
Are you worried about... So we celebrated Sarvam's growth at the AI Impact Summit. So Sarvam was a big part of the summit. Are you worried about now what Sarvam needs to do to serve a billion people?
No, I think that they are doing a very good job of not only building these models, they're designing it frugally. The cost is a big thing. I think inference cost has to be at Indian rupee cost, not dollar cost. So I think they're doing all the right things.
And perhaps the last question. Yeah.
My name is Rahul. My question is so simple. Will India become an AI producer or a consumer? Because we were enslaved by using first and second industrial revolutions. We are in a very important fourth industrial revolution.
So see, as I said, making it work in the real world for real people at billion scale is incredibly complicated. We should do that and then as the costs go down of building models, as the cost goes down and the capability goes up, we'll build any number of models. It's not a big deal. But I think one thing that's become clear with even the questions that we have here is we have to do a better job of explaining diffusion.
Yeah. And one would think it's intuitive. If AI can benefit you as an individual, as a farmer, as a teacher, something will work out. Markets will work out, revenue. But it's clear that everyone's fixated on models. So at some level, I'm guessing this will have to be diffused.
Work out revenue. But it's clear that everyone's fixated on models. So at some level, I'm guessing this will have to be diffused. Last question to you, Mr. Nilekani. You unlocked digital infrastructure in India and large parts of the world. You're in the process of unlocking AI, we hope. What's the next unlock for Nandan Nilekani?
That's good enough. Yeah.
Okay. No, there's got to be an answer. There's got to be something that bugs you. This is it. After AI, I'm done.
Wow, that's a showstopper there itself. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Nandan Nilekani. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Rudra. And of course, thank you so much, Mr. Nilekani, for taking out the time and joining us at Raisina. I think Samir wants to be in the photo scale. So, there's the abundance lot again, the abundance lot in California. There's the frugality lot over here and then there's the how do you achieve productive gain? What's your take on this?
No, no, I think productivity definitely AI has a lot of potential of productivity gain but I think we should distinguish between individual productivity, group productivity, enterprise productivity and national productivity. So individual productivity is a no-brainer. You know I can use these tools, a co-pilot or this and that and do all kinds of things and I can be very pleased with myself. So that's probably very high. But when you get to a group, the productivity drops because there's you have coordination costs getting people together. When you take it to an enterprise, it drops even further. And you take it to a society though it drops. So I think while there is productivity benefit, we cannot extrapolate from an individual becoming more productive to a society becoming more productive and that's the fallacy of all this. So I think yes there will be productivity gains and definitely things will have a substantial impact but it'll not be at the pace of how an individual improves.
Last one on governments. Do you find generally governments are willing to integrate AI into workflows and see it as part of their future? Do you see a lot of hesitancy?
So certainly I think India will embrace AI for the reason that Indians have seen the power of digital in their world. Right? Today we have a woman in a village can get an Aadhaar. With Aadhaar she can open a bank account, get a mobile connection. She can start a small shop, borrow some money, start selling vegetables or coconuts. She can get a digital history of that with UPI. She can take that history and use the account aggregator system and get a loan and grow her business. So we have created a path of aspiration for a billion people. So they all see the power of technology. So because they see that they are positively disposed towards technology and that's what makes India the ideal place to try out all these things to make AI work for people.
AI work for people. Good note to go to people. That's all of you there. Perhaps I could turn to the Raisina fellows to start with. I see a lot of hands up. The Raisina fellows if anyone I'm going to privilege you first. So if you have any particular questions,
How do you know he's a Raisina fellow?
Yeah, they're all in one block, sir. So we've got them in one.
Yeah. Any questions from this side of the room? Yeah, please go ahead. Can we get the gentleman a mic? I think you just have to walk up to the mic there.
Yeah. Hello. Sir, I am Abhishek Jen. I am the Raisina young fellow for this year. So I am a semiconductor professional and my question is basically on what you said. So as AI models are becoming concentrated in a few global companies or countries like US and China as you said. How can countries like India avoid becoming merely AI consumers rather than AI creators? Right. So as you know like in semiconductor we have lost on the manufacturing in India. Are we risking the same thing with the AI LLM models and technology?
So from consumer to producer how can we actually on the back to the models question.
Yeah. So I think the way to think about it is it's about timing. Right now we should deploy it to make it make a difference and that's very hard to do by the way. It's not easy to pull it off. We have to make that happen and over time the models will proliferate as it is already happening. The models will become cheaper to build and the knowledge of building models will become ubiquitous. At that time you build your own model. It's not a big deal. Why? It's just a question of sequencing it.
Okay, thank you. It's a good challenge I think for you guys there. Yeah, next one. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Utkash. I'm a Raisina Young fellow from the 19 cohort. You touched upon productivity at national levels, individual levels, society levels. I was wondering if you had any comments on what happens to achievement which is far more subjective and a lot of philosophers say that the sense of achievement with the infusion of AI tends to drop.
Are we going to become dumber?
No, I think that's why I think we need to think of AI as a way of amplifying human potential, amplifying human ability, allowing humans to strive to achieve more. And I think that's the way to get AI going. I think if you agree with you, it's something that does everything for you, then you know you stop thinking. So definitely at least the work that we do is how to make AI amplify human skills and achievements.
Yeah, we got another question there. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm Wim, co-founder of a quantum tech startup based in London. My question is where do you see and also how do you see AI and quantum technologies converging in the future to have the most impact in India?
AI and quantum what's the equation there? No, I think there are many implications of quantum when it comes. It's going to have an impact on cryptography. It'll have an impact on building computers that will be even more powerful which AI will use. So I think they will have an interplay in the future but that's still down the road.
Namaskar. My name is Srian Kumar Prasad. So I have a question related to Aadhaar like why masked Aadhaar is not implemented for the nationwide because unmasked Aadhaar when you say that a woman at a village can get her rations or any other essential services easily but she can also be a victim for the cyber crime because of the unmasked Aadhaar. So why not implement masked Aadhaar throughout the nation?
Right? So Aadhaar cyber crime how do we square that circle? No, he said something about the masked versions.
Yeah, but ultimately you see the number is valid when it's used online and only the person whose number it is issued can use it online. So that's how you would prevent anything.
Section 46 of Aadhaar Act 2016 says that must inform users of alternate identification methods and shall not deny services. But in India we see that denial of services are done because when we are not able to give the Aadhaar.
Okay. Same question on masked essentially. So I'm going to take it to the right of the room now. I think I saw a hand up over there. Please go ahead. Yeah. Could we get a mic please? There are mics there. Yeah. You can run to the mic. You can even come up on stage.
Good afternoon sir. My name is Somia. I'm a fellow with the Observer Research Foundation. Since last two days we've been discussing the significance of AI in various aspects of our country's life and so on. I wanted to specifically ask that can we think of AI being used for let's say war gaming scenarios so that our armed forces are better prepared because we acknowledge its significance but we don't talk about solutions or preparedness as much as we should. So anything from the creator? Thank you.
No, no, no. I'm sure I mean obviously you can go to a whole new level of wargaming with AI but I don't know the status of that.
Can I push you on that on one sec? So, we're seeing a bit of a drama play out in the US right now between Anthropic and we just hosted Dario for the summit and the Department of War. Does that tension worry you as someone who wants to diffuse this stuff for global good?
Well, I think it's adding to the sort of debate and it's an interesting debate because essentially the government is saying that as long as we're doing lawful things with the technology we have the right to do that and you know Dario is saying that there are certain uses that I'd like to prohibit so that's for them to sort out. But I think it only goes back to my point which is that we have to bring AI to a place where it's benefiting people and if you don't do that sooner or later there'll be a backlash or what's now called a botlash. So I think this is only adding to that. I mean how does it make my life better? Every morning I get up how does my life become better with AI? That's the question we have to answer. So diffusion, diffusion, diffusion. Yes, please go ahead.
Hello. Okay, shall we start with the gentleman with the black shirt first?
Yeah, thank you sir. I'm Arindam Goswami. I run a startup out of northeast India and we work with a lot of MSME and small business owners from my region. So given my region has a lot of language diversity, something that's probably even more than from the rest of India, a common pain point that we've always noticed is that because you're not able to speak this number of languages, you're not actually able to access that number of people. So how about Infosys and how could we basically, you know, come up with frameworks that could help us bridge that gap?
Well, no, I think there is already by the way it's happening. We have this thing called AI for Bharat at IIT which is coming out with all 22 Indian major languages. They're also working with the less resourced languages. Recently in the Maharashtra case that Mahavistar which is in Marathi but there's a tribe called the Bhils who speak Bhili which is a very specific tribal language. Now they brought that up to speed and now you can answer questions and ask questions and answer them in Bhili. So now we have the infrastructure in India to take to every Indian language in a matter of a few weeks or months. So I think it can be done also in the northeast.
Are you worried about So, we celebrated Sarvam's growth at the AI Impact Summit. So, Sarvam was a big part of the summit. Are you worried about now what Sarvam needs to do to serve a billion people?
No, I think that they are doing a very good job of not only building these models, they're designing it frugally. They're designing it. The cost is a big thing. I think inference cost has to be at Indian rupee cost, not dollar cost. So I think they're doing all the right things.
And perhaps the last question with Yeah.
My name is Rahul. My question is so simple. Will India become an AI producer or a consumer? Because we were enslaved by using first and second industrial revolution. We very important fourth industrial revolutions.
So see as I said making it work in the real world for real people at billion scale is incredibly complicated. We should do that and then as the costs go down of building models as the cost and the capability goes down and the capability goes up we'll build any number of models. It's not a big deal. But I think one thing that's become clear with even the questions that we have here is we have to do a better job of explaining diffusion.
Yeah. And one would think it's intuitive. If AI can benefit you as an individual, as a farmer, as a teacher, something will work out. Markets will work out, revenue. But it's clear that everyone's fixated on models. So at some level, I'm guessing this will have to be diffused. Last question to you, Mr. Nilekani. You unlocked digital infrastructure in India and large parts of the world. You're in the process of unlocking AI, we hope. What's the next unlock for Nandan Nilekani?
That's good enough. Yeah.
Okay. No, there's got to be an answer. There's got to be something that bugs you. This is it. After AI, I'm done.
Wow, that's a showstopper there itself. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, thank you so much.
Thank you so much, Rudra. And of course, thank you so much, Mr. Nilekani, for taking out the time and joining us at Raisina. I think Samir wants to be in the photo scale. So, there's the abundance lot again, the abundance lot in California. There's the frugality lot over here and then there's the how do you achieve productive gain? What's your take on this?
No, no, I think productivity definitely AI has a lot of potential of productivity gain but I think we should distinguish between individual productivity, group productivity, enterprise productivity and national productivity. So individual productivity is a no-brainer. You know I can use these tools, a co-pilot or this and that and do all kinds of things and I can be very pleased with myself. So that's probably very high. But when you get to a group, the productivity drops because there's you have coordination costs getting people together. When you take it to an enterprise, it drops even further. And you take it to a society though it drops. So I think while there is productivity benefit, we cannot extrapolate from an individual becoming more productive to a society becoming more productive and that's the fallacy of all this. So I think yes there will be productivity gains and definitely things will have a substantial impact but it'll not be at the pace of how an individual improves.
And last one on governments. Do you find generally governments are willing to integrate AI into workflows and see it as part of their future? Do you see a lot of hesitancy?
So certainly I think India will embrace AI for the reason that Indians have seen the power of digital in their world. Right? Today we have a woman in a village can get an Aadhaar. With Aadhaar she can open a bank account, get a mobile connection. She can start a small shop, borrow some money, start selling vegetables or coconuts. She can get a digital history of that with UPI. She can take that history and use the account aggregator system and get a loan and grow her business. So we have created a path of aspiration for a billion people. So they all see the power of technology. So because they see that they are positively disposed towards technology and that's what makes India the ideal place to try out all these things to make AI work for people.
AI work for people. Good note to go to people. That's all of you there. Perhaps I could turn to the Raisina fellows to start with. I see a lot of hands up. The Raisina fellows if anyone I'm going to privilege you first. So if you have any particular questions,
How do you know he's a Raisina fellow?
Yeah, they're all in one block, sir. So we've got them in one.
Yeah. Any questions from this side of the room? Yeah, please go ahead. Can we get the gentleman a mic? I think you just have to walk up to the mic there.
Yeah. Hello. Sir, I am Abhishek Jen. I am the Raisina young fellow for this year. So I am a semiconductor professional and my question is basically on what you said. So as AI models are becoming concentrated in a few global companies or countries like US and China as you said. How can countries like India avoid becoming merely AI consumers rather than AI creators? Right. So as you know like in semiconductor we have lost on the manufacturing in India. Are we risking the same thing with the AI LLM models and technology?
So from consumer to producer how can we actually on the back to the models question.
Yeah. So I think the way to think about it is it's about timing. Right now we should deploy it to make it make a difference and that's very hard to do by the way. It's not easy to pull it off. We have to make that happen and over time the models will proliferate as it is already happening. The models will become cheaper to build and the knowledge of building models will become ubiquitous. At that time you build your own model. It's not a big deal. Why? It's just a question of sequencing it.
Okay, thank you. It's a good challenge I think for you guys there. Yeah, next one. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. My name is Utkash. I'm a Raisina Young fellow from the 19 cohort. You touched upon productivity at national levels, individual levels, society levels. I was wondering if you had any comments on what happens to achievement which is far more subjective and a lot of philosophers say that the sense of achievement with the infusion of AI tends to drop.
Are we going to become dumber?
No, I think that's why I think we need to think of AI as a way of amplifying human potential, amplifying human ability, allowing humans to strive to achieve more. And I think that's the way to get AI going. I think if you agree with you, it's something that does everything for you, then you know you stop thinking. So definitely at least the work that we do is how to make AI amplify human skills and achievements.
Yeah, we got another question there. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm Wim, co-founder of a quantum tech startup based in London. My question is where do you see and also how do you see AI and quantum technologies converging in the future to have the most impact in India?
AI and quantum what's the equation there? No, I think there are many implications of quantum when it comes. It's going to have an impact on cryptography. It'll have an impact on building computers that will be even more powerful which AI will use. So I think they will have an interplay in the future but that's still down the road.
Namaskar. My name is Srian Kumar Prasad. So I have a question related to Aadhaar like why masked Aadhaar is not implemented for the nationwide because unmasked Aadhaar when you say that a woman at a village can get her rations or any other essential services easily but she can also be a victim for the cyber crime because of the unmasked Aadhaar. So why not implement masked Aadhaar throughout the nation?
Right? So Aadhaar cyber crime how do we square that circle? No, he said something about the masked versions.
Yeah, but ultimately you see the number is valid when it's used online and only the person whose number it is issued can use it online. So that's how you would prevent anything.
Section 46 of Aadhaar Act 2016 says that must inform users of alternate identification methods and shall not deny services. But in India we see that denial of services are done because when we are not able to give the Aadhaar.
