After several global AI leaders pinned their hopes on India for its potential to adopt AI due to the sheer scale of its market, the country’s homegrown talent has also lauded India for its significant technological innovation.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced investment plans to boost the country’s infrastructure. Here is what happened at the summit:
Google CEO Has Great Things Planned for India
CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, started his speech by stating that he was honored to be back in India and that he was positively startled by the “pace of change in the country.” He also went on a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about his college days at IIT Kharagpur.
“Back when I was a student, I often took the Coromandel Express train from Chennai up to IIT Kharagpur. To get there, we passed through Visakhapatnam. I remember it being a quiet and modest coastal city brimming with potential.”
Pichai then announced that Google was planning to establish a “full-stack AI hub,” which would help generate significant employment in the country, along with the cutting-edge implementation of AI in businesses across India.
“In that same city, Google is establishing a full-stack AI hub, part of our $15 billion infrastructure investment in India. When finished, this hub will house gigawatt-scale compute and a new international subsea cable gateway, bringing jobs and cutting-edge AI to people and businesses across India…,” Pichai said.
The Google CEO acknowledged the role the government is playing in incorporating AI across the country and the economy. “You have to make sure you’re investing in all the foundational things you need — in research, knowledge, and institutions,” he further added.
Pichai further stated that the country’s diverse linguistic ecosystem and digital infrastructure provide a strong “foundation” for innovation, projecting an “extraordinary trajectory” in AI for India.
“AI has the biggest impact when developed and deployed with institutions that understand communities best,” the tech entrepreneur said.
With Google’s important announcements regarding the AI ecosystem in India, it remains to be seen how much the company will be able to contribute to India’s success in the global AI race.
Also read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Promotes Pluralism in AI Architecture
Emmanuel Macron Lauds India’s Move Towards Digitization at AI Summit
Macron expressed his admiration for India’s efforts toward digitalization. “A digital identity for 1.4 billion people. A payment system that now processes 20 billion transactions every month. A health infrastructure that has issued 500 million digital health IDs. Here are the results,” he stated.
He further highlighted that with the digital systems created in India, even a person in considerable impoverishment can access them.
“Ten years ago, a street vendor in Mumbai could not open a bank account — no address, no papers, no access. But today, that same vendor accepts payments on his phone,” Macron said.
The six-day AI summit kicked off in New Delhi on February 16 and will end on February 20.
Also read: Anthropic CEO Bets Big on India’s Massive Scale to Power the Next Phase of AI Revolution
