India must wake up on basic R&D for technology before it gets too late

Recently, a Chinese artificial intelligence company unveiled a language model brimming with innovations that make it 15-20 times cheaper than some of the best models globally, while offering comparable capabilities. Our missing foundation: When transformer models first emerged as a concept in AI two or three years ago, India had the talent and resources to dive into foundational research. In contrast, the most laudable Indian efforts largely focus on adapting existing foundational models to support local languages, a strategy that addresses immediate needs but falls short of not just fostering architectural innovation, but also creating products that could enhance our global competitiveness. Without basic breakthroughs, even India-specific language models risk being overshadowed by foreign alternatives that offer similar capabilities at scale in addition to a vast trove of other abilities.