In this episode of AI Rising, hosts Jayanth and Leslie dive deep into the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, exploring India’s role in shaping the future of AI. They discuss the India AI Mission and why it urgently needs a strong leader—just like Aadhaar had Nandan Nilekani and UPI had its own champions. Can India templatize its AI strategy for the Global South, just as it did with UPI?

The conversation also shifts to the debate between large language models (LLMs) vs. small language models (SLMs)—is India better off innovating with SLMs rather than competing in the costly LLM race? With compute limitations and a unique linguistic landscape, could smaller, more efficient models be India’s AI breakthrough?

Jayanth and Lesli also unpack the latest Sam Altman vs. Elon Musk drama—how the valuation of OpenAI and Musk’s sharp retorts are shaping the future of AI power struggles. Meanwhile, China is making a strong comeback in computer vision, with innovations like ByteDance’s “Only Human” model and Landing AI’s agentic object detection leading the charge.

With AI innovation shifting across continents, who will lead the next big breakthrough? Tune in to AI Rising for expert insights and thought-provoking discussions on the future of AI.

Mental Model: Inversion - Things Always Look Different From the Opposite Perspective