OpenAI, which developed the artificial intelligence bot called ChatGPT, is in talks to partner with India under its ‘OpenAI for Countries’ initiative, a person familiar with the matter has said. ‘OpenAI for Countries’ is a new global initiative by the creator of ChatGPT to help interested national governments with efforts like building out data center capacity in coordination with the US government.
OpenAI’s chief strategy officer Jason Kwon, who is currently in Delhi, has been touring across Asia Pacific, covering countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and Singapore, meeting governments and potential private-sector partners to discuss opportunities within the ‘OpenAI for Countries’ initiative.
The ‘for Countries’ initiative works in a two-way partnership between the US and another country. In its pilot project announced with UAE last month, the middle=east country will house a 1-gigawatt AI computing cluster called Stargate in Abu Dhabi, while also investing in similar AI infrastructure in the US as part of the US-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership.
While details of the India-US partnership under the ‘OpenAI for Countries’ initiative remain undisclosed, the company’s goal is to pursue 10 projects with individual countries or regions as the first phase of this initiative, and expand from there, said a company blog post.
“In the brief time that I have spent in India, it is clear that the country’s leadership understands that maximising AI’s benefits requires significant investments in two areas. Core infrastructure and cultivating AI talent. By leading in these areas and empowering people to harness frontier intelligence, India can accelerate economic growth,” said Kwon at an event in Delhi on June 5.
{{/usCountry}}“In the brief time that I have spent in India, it is clear that the country’s leadership understands that maximising AI’s benefits requires significant investments in two areas. Core infrastructure and cultivating AI talent. By leading in these areas and empowering people to harness frontier intelligence, India can accelerate economic growth,” said Kwon at an event in Delhi on June 5.
{{/usCountry}}In a step towards ‘cultivating AI talent’ in India, OpenAI, in partnership with MeitY’s IndiaAI Mission, launched ‘OpenAI Academy’ to give India’s developer community and network of startups and innovators access to AI education and tools. The two also signed a memorandum of understanding, making it OpenAI’s first international launch of its education platform.
The MoU outlines seven joint initiatives, including OpenAI contributing educational content to IndiaAI Mission’s FutureSkills platform to support digital skilling. The educational content will also be hosted on the iGOT Karmayogi platform to train government officials, initially in English and Hindi, and later in four regional languages.
Additionally, OpenAI will conduct regular webinars and in-person workshops in six cities, and provide up to $100,000 in API credits to 50 IndiaAI-approved fellows or startups. The partnership also includes a series of hackathons across seven states, expected to reach around 25,000 students, with winners receiving invitations to attend OpenAI Dev Day events internationally.
“We believe the latest AI frameworks and tools must be made widely accessible so that our startups, developers, and researchers can build faster, better, and at scale,” IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a video message at the event.