Indian mindset not oriented towards problem definition and solving: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy on why building an LLM doesn't make sense

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy cited India’s lack of problem-solving in certain technologies, saying that the country should not yet invest in building its own large language models (LLMs).

“We have not been able to build large databases, and without big data, AI (artificial intelligence) has no value. A large language model (LLM) doesn't make any sense. Basically, the Indian mindset is still not oriented towards problem definition and problem-solving,” Murthy said in an interview with Moneycontrol.

He argued that India should focus on building solutions atop existing LLMs—an idea supported by prominent technologists like Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani and venture capital firm Accel.

LLM is an advanced AI system trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language. It can answer questions, write text, and assist with tasks by predicting words based on context.

Also read: Let the big boys in the Valley build LLMs; we will use it to solve real-world problems: Nilekani

The idea has found backers even in power corridors, with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) secretary S Krishnan suggesting that building an LLM from scratch may not be worth the effort and instead advocated for adapting existing models to serve specific sectors.

The rationale given is that LLMs are capital-intensive and require years of development—an area where companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, and other tech giants have already invested substantial time and resources in recent years.

“While it is laudable to work towards building large language models in vernacular, but until the time when we can actually create large databases, I don't know how well we can use it,” Murthy said on the sidelines of the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) awards.

Meanwhile, Murthy added that Indian languages are still in their infancy, compared to English, when it comes to the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field.

The Services Mindset Question

While Murthy and others have argued that India shouldn’t focus on building LLMs, many Indian startups and foreign companies have already launched multilingual LLMs.

Lightspeed-backed startup Sarvam AI launched its LLM Sarvam 1, on October 24. The startup claims it is India’s first homegrown multilingual LLM, trained from scratch on domestic AI infrastructure in 10 Indian languages and English. Others such as Bengaluru-based CoRover.ai’s BharatGPT and Seetha Mahalaxmi Healthcare’s Hanooman AI have also jumped on the LLM bandwagon.

Nonetheless, detractors of Indian LLMs maintain that India is bringing a services mindset to the nascent technology, instead of building at the foundational layer.

"Which area has (India) invented? Please give me an example," Murthy asked, highlighting the country’s dependence on adapting foreign technologies rather than creating innovations.

Murthy praised the information technology (IT) services industry, saying it has succeeded in building complex applications, creating millions of jobs, and earning valuable foreign exchange. "We should all be grateful to the IT services industry; we should all salute them," he remarked, defending the sector against criticisms that it has not driven innovation.

Murthy said that India has yet to solve long-standing issues like Dengue and Delhi's pollution, despite these being persistent problems.

He questioned why the IT services industry should be singled out for criticism when the country as a whole has not addressed these challenges.

Murthy pointed to successes in adapting technology for national benefit, citing Aadhaar and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as prime examples. “We have done a good job in using those technologies.”

However, Murthy stressed that India's educational approach needs reform to enable homegrown innovation. He suggested bringing teachers from developed countries to train Indian educators in critical thinking, problem-solving, and Socratic questioning skills.

"Unless you do that, you cannot say we are not inventing the next thing which technology have invented," he said, underlining the need for a shift towards a more solution-oriented mindset in India.

ISF Winners

On November 14, ISF announced winners of the Infosys Prize 2024 in six categories—Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences.

The laureates of the Infosys Prize 2024 were selected by an international panel of jurors comprised of renowned scholars and experts. This year, the prize, with a new direction, decided to honour researchers under 40, emphasizing the need for early recognition of exceptional talent.

Since its inception in 2009, the Infosys Prize has honoured the accomplishments of individuals whose research and scholarship significantly impact India.

The winners of the Infosys Prize 2024 were announced by the trustees of ISF —Kris Gopalakrishnan (President, Board of Trustees), Narayana Murthy, K. Dinesh, Pratima Murthy, Mohandas Pai, and S. D. Shibulal. The other trustees include Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Batni, and Salil Parekh.

The Infosys Prize remains the largest award in India that acknowledges excellence in science and research, with the prize for each category comprising a gold medal, a citation, and a purse of $100,000, or its equivalent in Rupees. Moreover, laureates of the Infosys Prize have gone on to receive several prestigious international awards, including the Nobel Prize - Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

The Infosys Prize 2024 recipients in the six categories are:

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Economics was awarded to Arun Chandrasekhar, Professor, Department of Economics, Stanford University.

The award in Engineering and Computer Science went to Shyam Gollakota, Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington.

The Humanities and Social Sciences award was presented to Mahmood Kooria, Lecturer, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.

In the Life Sciences category, the prize was bestowed to Siddhesh Kamat, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

The Infosys Prize in Mathematical Sciences was awarded to Neena Gupta, Professor in the Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Vedika Khemani, Associate Professor in the Physics Department at Stanford University, received the Infosys Prize 2024 in Physical Sciences.

Also read: Indians are good at applying ideas generated elsewhere: Narayana Murthy