India is poised to make a significant impact in the global AI landscape. The government is gearing up to compete with prominent AI platforms such as DeepSeek and ChatGPT, as announced by Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav. As part of the India AI Mission, a homegrown AI model is set to be launched in the coming months. The recent debut of the Chinese AI model, DeepSeek R1, has already caused a stir in Silicon Valley, prompting concern among tech giants such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft.
The timeline for this initiative is ambitious, with plans to have it ready within the next 10 months. Minister Vaishnav revealed that India is in the process of developing its own Large Language Model (LLM). To support this endeavour, the country has established a facility equipped with 18,000 high-end Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). In comparison, DeepSeek AI operates with 2,000 GPUs, while ChatGPT was trained using 25,000 GPUs. India's 18,000-plus GPUs are being prepared to drive this AI mission forward.
As noted by ANI, the Union Minister emphasized that the focus will be on creating AI models attuned to the Indian context and culture. This indicates that the homegrown AI model will cater to local languages and user needs. It aims to support languages such as Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali, in addition to Hindi.
Regarding the India AI Mission, the Union Minister highlighted Prime Minister Modi's inclusive vision. The initiative is grounded in the essence of India, with the establishment of the Common Compute Facility being the first major step. This facility includes 18,693 GPUs, which exceeds the initial target of 10,000 GPUs. Startups interested in developing foundational models will have the opportunity to leverage this Common Compute Facility.
Why are GPUs crucial, you might ask?
GPUs, or Graphics Processing Units, are essential for training AI as they are specifically designed to quickly process AI and machine learning tasks. Companies like Nvidia and AMD are at the forefront of developing these powerful GPUs, which have the capability to handle billions of data points. Through its AI mission, India is making significant strides in this direction.
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