TIME100 AI list: Indians make their mark on the global AI landscape

The 27-year-old social entrepreneur founded Karya, a nonprofit, that pays workers a fair wage for their work on AI projects. Chopra saw firsthand how the data that powers AI systems is often generated by low-wage workers. He believes that Karya can help move millions of people out of poverty by redistributing wealth to the communities left behind.

Karya pays its workers at least $5.00 per hour for their work and it pays them again every time a company licences the data to build a new AI. The nonprofit also collects datasets of Indian languages that have so far been sidelined from the AI boom.

Neal Khosla, CEO and Co-Founder, Curai

Curai Health is a telehealth startup co-founded by Neal Khosla in 2017 with an aim to revolutionise access to medical care. For a monthly fee of $15, users can access a subscription-based virtual care service that allows them to text 24/7 with healthcare professionals.

AI plays a crucial role behind the scenes acting as an assistant to doctors by handling routine tasks like gathering patient information and sending follow-up messages. This streamlined process enables a small team of clinicians to serve a large number of patients.

Sneha Revanur, Founder and President, Encode Justice

Eighteen-year-old Revanur, the youngest on the list, has emerged as a prominent advocate for AI regulation driven by her deep involvement in technology from an early age. She founded Encode Justice in 2020, a youth-led civil society group in California that initially focused on opposing a ballot measure to replace cash bail with an AI-based algorithm. After their successful campaign, the group expanded its mission to educate and mobilise young people worldwide on AI policy advocacy.

Revanur, who has often been called the "Greta Thunberg of AI," argues that her generation will bear the consequences of a rapidly developing technology and should play a vital role in its regulation. Her efforts in this area led to her participation in a roundtable discussion on AI with US Vice President Kamala Harris, signalling a growing recognition of young voices in shaping AI policy.

Kalika Bali, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research India

Kalika Bali spent several years dedicated to breaking language barriers in technology. Despite early discouragement, she pursued her mission and is now a driving force at Microsoft Research India, where she is championing inclusivity in the AI revolution.

One of her significant projects, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on creating "gender intentional" datasets in five Indian languages spoken by over a billion people. Bali's aim is to eliminate gender biases that often plague AI training data sourced from the internet.

Tushita Gupta, CTO and Co-Founder, Refiberd

Tushita Gupta is the Chief Technology Officer of Refiberd, a California-based company, founded in 2020 by her and Sarika Bajaj. Their mission is to revolutionise textile recycling by using AI to identify the composition of various textile items.

Refiberd's AI system uses hyperspectral cameras to analyse textiles on a conveyor belt, identifying materials and helping to recycle synthetic materials like nylon and polyester.

Romesh and Sunil Wadhwani, Co-Founders, Wadhwani AI

Founded by billionaire brothers Romesh and Sunil Wadhwani, Mumbai-based Wadhwani AI is a non-profit institute with a mission to develop and deploy AI solutions for social good. Wadhwani AI works in a variety of sectors, including health care, education and agriculture.

One of the institute's most notable projects is its work on tuberculosis (TB). Wadhwani AI has developed a range of AI programs to predict high-risk and mortality among TB patients in India.

Pushmeet Kohli, Vice President of Research, Google DeepMind

Pushmeet Kohli currently leads two teams at Google DeepMind: the AI for Science project and the Responsible and Reliable AI team. He is known for his work on AI safety and his contributions to the development of the AlphaFold protein structure prediction system.

Kohli is a cautious optimist about the potential of AI. He believes that AI can be used to solve many of the world's most pressing problems but he also believes that it is important to take steps to ensure that AI is used safely and responsibly.

Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, Professor & Doctoral Candidate, Princeton University

Arvind Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University. He is known for his work on the societal impact of digital technologies, especially AI.

In 2019, he gave a talk titled "How to Recognize AI Snake Oil," which went viral and led to him co-authoring a book on the topic with one of his PhD students, Sayash Kapoor. The book will be published in 2024.