India Must Focus on Practical AI, Not Costly LLMs: Mohandas Pai

India should prioritise the adoption of practical artificial intelligence (AI) models over the expensive race to build frontier large language models (LLMs), according to Mohandas Pai, chairman of venture capital firm Aarin Capital and former chief financial officer of Infosys. He made the remarks on Wednesday at the launch of fintech firm ToneTag’s voice-first merchant banking platform, eKosha.

Mr. Pai argued that India's constraints in capital and computing infrastructure make it more sensible to focus on deploying AI to solve real-world problems and improve productivity. 'India’s AI success would ultimately be measured not by the number of frontier models it builds, but by how effectively AI improves the lives and productivity of ordinary citizens, entrepreneurs and small businesses,' he said.

He noted that public discourse often overlooks the enormous investments and infrastructure efforts required for building LLMs, and that the country has become overly focused on whether it is developing such models. 'We see so many criticisms in this country by people who suddenly become experts on AI and technology, saying, why are you not building LLMs, or why are you not doing this? Building LLMs costs $35-40 billion, and nobody is writing that cheque in this country,' Mr. Pai stated.

He also emphasised that access to massive hyperscale computing infrastructure is essential for developing frontier AI models. He pointed out that India has about two gigawatts of hyper-cloud capacity, compared to the United States' 40 GW, and that the US is expected to invest some $3 trillion over the next two years. 'In India, we are still to start the voyage,' he commented.

Mr. Pai predicted that voice would become the next major interface for digital services, replacing many app-based interactions. He observed that advances in speech recognition, speech-to-speech translation and small language models are making voice interfaces increasingly practical across Indian languages. 'Voice is the primary means by which human beings communicate,' he said.

He also recommended that India equip its more than 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with affordable AI and robotics technologies to boost productivity, as these technologies are likely to automate a significant share of human activities in the coming years.