TIME100 AI list's Prof. Anima on her great-great-grandfather discovering Arthashastra…| HTLS 2026

What will it take for India to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, and where could the next major scientific breakthroughs emerge? At the 24th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Professor Anima Anandkumar, Bren Professor at Caltech and an IIT Madras alumna, shares her perspective on India's AI ambitions and the opportunities ahead. Anandkumar says India must look beyond large language models and invest in areas such as space, batteries, engineering and scientific research. She also highlights the potential of AI to expand access to local languages, preserve India's historical manuscripts and unlock its cultural knowledge. Looking ahead to 2030, she predicts that AI could accelerate scientific discovery in unexpected ways, including transforming chip design and manufacturing by overcoming complex engineering bottlenecks.