After dismissing India’s AI potential, Sam Altman now backs India as an AI leader

Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, on his second visit to India in two years, urged the nation to become a leader in artificial intelligence (AI). This is in sharp contrast to his earlier stance where he had called competing with OpenAI on AI models a totally “hopeless” endeavour, particularly for young Indian startups.

He has now clarified that the comments—from his 2023 visit—were taken out of context and that India in fact holds great potential to excel in developing smaller, specialised AI models, particularly those focused on reasoning.