AI systems need to become more cost and performance efficient: Vian AI Systems' Vishal Sikka

Speaking virtually from Munich at the Global Partnership for AI summit 2023, the former Infosys chief said that India has to play a fundamental role in making sure that a lot of people become hands-on with this technology

Artificial intelligence systems and processors have to be made at least 10 orders of magnitude (10 to the power 10 times) more efficient in terms of cost and performance as they currently use a lot of computing power, Vian AI Systems founder Vishal Sikka said on December 12.

"If you look at us as information processing machines, we do our intelligence in about 2,000 calories in a day which is like a 100-watt light bulb. From a power consumption point of view, we are vastly more efficient than today's systems by at least 10 orders of magnitude," he said.

"So many zeros need to be still removed from that. I think this is a very important area to focus on, especially in India... finding low-cost ways to improve the performance of generative AI," he added.

Speaking virtually from Munich at the Global Partnership for AI Summit 2023, Sikka said that improving cost and energy efficiency, decreasing hallucination and training more people in the technology were the three most important challenges in AI.

"Probably there are less than 1,00,000 people out of 8 billion who understand this tech. And India has to play a fundamental role in making sure that a lot of people become hands-on with this technology," he said.

"The better way of building AI is first building the talent for AI," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the GPAI summit on December 12 and international delegates are expected to engage in several sessions revolving around AI. As part of the event, the government is working on a multi-country, consensus-based declaration on AI, specifically on ways to mitigate risks and foster innovation.

The GPAI India meet marks the first major event of the alliance’s new council chair, India. The country took over from France as the GPAI council chair in November.

“As the Lead Chair of the GPAI, India reaffirms its commitment to harnessing technology, particularly AI, for the welfare of people, ensuring that nations of the Global South are not the last to reap its benefits. India is dedicated to clearing the path for a regulatory framework that ensures Safe and Trusted AI, bringing all nations together for widespread and enduring implementation,” PM Modi had said earlier in a blog post about the summit on LinkedIn.