On Thursday, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Information Technology, declared that DeepSeek, the well-known Chinese open-source Artificial Intelligence model, will be hosted on Indian servers shortly to tackle privacy issues.
The minister stated that India will develop its own foundational model in the upcoming months while he detailed the nation’s AI aspirations. The minister also declared the inclusion of 18,693 graphics processing units (GPUs) in a shared computing facility.
In a series of announcements aimed at positioning India at the forefront of global AI, Vaishnaw also stated that an AI safety institution will be established.
“Making modern tech accessible to everyone, that is the economic thinking of our PM… Ours is the most affordable compute facility, at this point of time,” IT Minister Vaishnaw said.
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In March, the government revealed an AI investment exceeding Rs 10,300 crore, named IndiaAI mission, which encompasses financing for AI startups and the creation of its own AI infrastructure.
“Certain individuals raise doubts about the level of funding the government has allocated to the (IndiaAI mission). Have you noticed what DeepSeek has accomplished? $5.5 million and an extremely strong model. Due to the utilization of the brain,” Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on Tuesday during an event in the eastern state of Odisha.
The minister’s statements appeared to echo Sam Altman’s remarks from OpenAI, in which he conveyed doubts about the capability of an Indian team to create a major model in the AI field during his visit to India last year.
The DeepSeek AI model, created by a Chinese startup and launched recently, has stirred considerable attention in the AI field. Referred to as DeepSeek R1, this model has received acclaim for its efficiency and effectiveness, especially in intricate reasoning tasks. Recently, downloads of its app exceeded those of OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the Apple App Store.
