India must boost AI research to retain top talent and stay competitive

India has long struggled with the steady departure of some of its brightest minds seeking better opportunities abroad. The pattern continues even in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Although India reaffirmed its commitment to advance the key AI priorities of the Global South at the recent AI Action Summit in Paris, it may find it difficult to become a worldwide AI hub unless it is able to retain its AI talent successfully. While India remains a significant exporter of top-tier AI researchers, it has clearly not emerged as the top destination for AI talent of the highest level to work. Stanford University’s AI Index Report 2024 notes that despite a 263 per cent increase in AI talent concentration between 2016 and 2023, India still ranked 13th globally on that count. In the past few years, India is among the few countries, along with Israel and South Korea, which have seen declining net AI talent-migration figures, suggesting that people with such skills have been moving out of these countries. 

Another research shows that, of the best AI talent (the top 2 per cent), around 12 per cent originated in India in 2019. In 2022, the share went down to 7 per cent. Moreover, none of the Indian institutions qualifies among the highest 25 for top-tier AI research. Clearly, the high levels of migration by Indian AI researchers are driven by superior funding, infrastructure, collaboration opportunities in AI research, access to cutting-edge technology, and mentorship by world-renowned AI experts. This is evident from India’s low and stagnant share in global AI patents — a meagre 0.23 per cent in 2022, or even the absence of its own large language model (LLM). Government funding for research remains low, and the domestic AI industry is not as mature as, say, in the US. Most Indian companies tend to focus on AI service rather than cutting-edge AI research and innovation. Retaining talent in India, thus, must be a priority for Indian policymakers. Despite heavy investment in nurturing talent through publicly funded institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology, India does not stand to benefit much, while Western countries get to cherry-pick top Indian talent without bearing their training cost. 

With a large chunk of the tech world’s capital and talent being deployed towards monetising AI, competition among countries in this arena will be fiercer than ever. India is working on developing a foundational LLM, which is a good sign, and more effort must be made in this direction. Overall, the government’s efforts through initiatives like the National AI Mission, AI-focused startup incubators, and increased government funding must be welcomed. Currently, there are more than 240 generative AI startups in the country. It is also important that retaining talent must go hand in hand with developing and fortifying graphics processing unit (GPU) computing facilities, and this will require significant improvement in tech infrastructure, research funding, industry collaboration, and global competitiveness. Only increasing opportunities will retain talent in India and give the country an advantage in what is visibly the biggest technological shift in recent times.