Next large investment should be in AI infrastructure, says Sitharaman

Sitharaman said India needs more investment in AI infrastructure and training to help businesses improve productivity

India’s next large investment should be in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, and the country should not stop investing in the sector despite calls from frontier-model firms to slow the development of models over fears that they may endanger humanity, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. 

“Investment in AI is definitely the next frontier. The AI infrastructure that we have or the AI infrastructure which we should have had, despite the call for slowing down the speed with which innovators are coming up in the AI field. I still think for India, we need a lot more investment towards bringing in that kind of hardware and teachers to institutions who have to constantly upgrade and keep imparting AI based knowledge,” she said at an event organised by IIT Madras in Bengaluru on Saturday. 

 

According to her, while Western countries have made considerable progress in AI, so has India. The country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which form the backbone of the economy, want AI solutions to improve their productivity. 

“They are like a spectrum, making everything from pins to aircraft components. Are we there to give it to them? Are we there to give them such trainers who will help them to understand how AI can make them a better competitor than their peer groups from other countries. So, there is no way in which the call that is coming from the western world, which already have taken a big lead in AI, saying, don't go that fast, and put some brains out there.” 

Her comments come weeks after Dario Amodei, founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, said frontier-model companies need to slow the pace at which they improve the capabilities of AI models as the risks of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and catastrophic economic disruption continue to grow. 

The call was seconded by leading figures in the AI industry, including Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella and Demis Hassabis. 

Sitharaman also regretted a perception elsewhere that nothing happens in India when it comes to AI. 

“The measure is how many of them are listed on the boards of NSE and BSE. And right they are when they say India has missed the bus. That's because we don't have companies which have already gone to list themselves.” 

She explained that a listing brings its own advantages and that multiple listings send a signal that something meaningful is happening. But she also cautioned that innovative minds should not have to look for funding themselves, as the two activities are different. “They should have partners. And those partners should also think of not just initial stage or late stage funding, but contemplate will it be good to have them listed.”