It’s ‘Hopeless’ to Compete with AI, says Sam Altman; challenge accepted, quips Tech Mahindra CEO

New Delhi (India), 10th June 2023: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Twitter earlier this week that he would be going on a six-nation trip that would include India.

At an event in India hosted by Economic Times, Altman was questioned whether India can construct an artificial intelligence tool like ChatGPT by Rajan Anandan, former Vice President of Google in India and South East Asia and current venture capitalist.

Questioning Altman, Anandan said, “Sam, we have got a very vibrant ecosystem in India, but specifically focussing on AI, are there spaces where you see a startup from India building foundational (AI) models how should we think about that, where is it that a team from India (should start) to actually build something truly substantial?”

To this Sam wittily replied, “The way this works is we’re going to tell you, it’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models you shouldn’t try, and it’s your job to like try anyway. And I believe both of those things. I think it is pretty hopeless.”

However this doesn’t sit well with Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani who replied to Altman via a tweet and wrote, “OpenAI founder Sam Altman said it’s pretty hopeless for Indian companies to try and compete with them. Dear @sama, From one CEO to another.. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.”

Altman met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tour to India and claimed that he asked him why India had embraced ChatGPT.