CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman dealt on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, with earlier remarks about India’s possible development of fundamental artificial intelligence (AI) models. Altman set the record straight in a discussion with Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during his India trip about his earlier remarks having been taken out of context.
Explanation of Earlier Observations
During his 2023 trip to India, Altman noted that the high cost made constructing basic AI models a difficult project. He clarified that his remarks pertained exactly to that period and the then level of artificial intelligence advancement. “The comment I made in India a few years ago about the cost of building foundational AI models, was taken out of context. That was a certain time of scaling AI, and I still think that pre-trained foundational AI models are expensive,” said Altman.
He stressed that developments in AI model distillation have since rendered it more possible for nations like India to create their models. We have done a great deal with small models, and reasoning models today are not inexpensive but still workable. This could result in a burst of creativity, with India leading by example.”
India’s Increasing Relevance in AI
Altman emphasized India’s important contribution to the artificial intelligence industry and mentioned it has become OpenAI’s second-largest market. “India is an incredibly important market for AI in general. For OpenAI, it is our second biggest market, and we’ve tripled the number of users here over the past year,” he said. He commended the creative output of Indian developers and startups working at several levels of the AI stack—chips, models, and apps. According to Altman, “India should be doing everything, and should be one of the global leaders of the AI revolution.”
Government Programs and Corporate Changes
Minister Vaishnaw discussed the India AI Mission, which aims to build the country’s fundamental AI models and establish support systems for a wide AI environment. This project coincides with Altman’s idea of the market and highlights India’s dedication to improving its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Altman’s arrival coincides with OpenAI’s growing competition with other technological companies. DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, just announced the development of its fundamental AI model R1 at a fraction of the cost OpenAI had, and companies like Meta have open-sourced some of their AI work. These trends emphasize the quickly changing scene of artificial intelligence technology as well as the increasing affordability of AI model construction.
Future of Technical Learning
Altman admitted the normal march toward lower expenditures in artificial intelligence research and hence viewed India’s role via its startups and developers as fundamental to this process. He observed that staying at the front of AI development is expensive, but the falling cost of intelligence units might promote more creativity and invention. “At the same time, the cost of a unit of intelligence will drop by 10x in one year. Moore’s Law changed the world with a 2x increase in performance. Now, what’s happening with AI is extraordinary” Altman noted.
He stressed that this trend does not suggest a lower requirement for AI hardware but rather the power to do more with the same resources. “This doesn’t mean that the world will need less AI hardware, but that we can now do more things with the same amount of hardware, so the total amount of dollars invested will go up” he added.