OpenAI’s Sam Altman on meeting PM Modi: ‘Talked about AI opportunities in India, on need to think about regulation’

Sam Altman met Prime Minister Modi

OpenAI’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 8, said the meeting was great and that the PM was enthusiastic about AI.

The meeting comes at an interesting time as India looks to regulate AI in the upcoming Digital Indian Bill, which will replace the Information Technology (IT) Act, and the government has differed from Altman’s approach to regulation.

Answering questions at the Digital India Dialogues, Altman said, “It was great. It was really fun. He was so enthusiastic, really thoughtful about AI, and the benefits of it. We asked why India has embraced ChatGPT so much and so early. It’s really been fun for us to watch. He had great answers about that.”

He added that they also talked about what opportunities India presents for AI, and about regulation.

“We talked about the opportunities in front for the country, what the country should do, also the need to think about global regulation to make sure we prevent some of the downsides from happening — but it was a great hour,” the OpenAI CEO said.

As ChatGPT has exploded, Altman told the Economic Times on June 7 that India has been a country that has “truly embraced ChatGPT”. “There has been a lot of early adoption and real enthusiasm from the users,” Altman said.

Altman is on a whirlwind tour of India, where he was expected to meet government officials and also discuss the country's flagship India AI programme, among other things.

Altman has previously suggested an international authority to regulate advanced AI, which Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar had differed with. “Sam Altman is obviously a smart man. He has his own ideas about how AI should be regulated. We certainly think we have some smart brains in India as well and we have our own views on how AI should have guardrails,” Chandrasekhar had said.

“If there is eventually a United Nations of AI – as Sam Altman wants – more power to it. But that does not stop us from doing what is right for our digital nagriks (citizens) and keeping the internet safe and trusted,” the minister added.