In a powerful message to India’s AI companies, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani urged them not to focus on building yet another large language model (LLM). Instead, Nilekani encouraged AI companies to leverage existing LLMs to tackle real-world challenges that align with India’s unique needs. He stressed the importance of using AI to solve pressing issues in areas such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and financial services, where AI can make a meaningful impact on people’s lives.
Nilekani also praised Meta for its decision to make its foundational LLM collection open source, calling it a “game changer” for India. According to him, Meta’s move allows Indian developers and companies to access and innovate with foundational models rather than duplicating efforts. Meta recently updated its licensing terms for Llama AI models, allowing developers to use synthetic data generated by Llama to create and train other models. This opens up a new path for Indian developers to use Llama’s capabilities to build targeted AI applications without the need to start from scratch.
Nilekani’s advice offers Indian companies a clear direction for maximizing AI’s potential: rather than competing to build more LLMs, they should harness these open-source resources to address local problems. By doing so, India can become a leader in AI solutions that genuinely improve the lives of its vast and diverse population.
