 "Ashwini Viashnaw, Anil Kapoor")
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Anil Kapoor (Photos: Wikimedia Commons)
Union minister of electronics and information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw and actor Anil Kapoor are among Indians who have been honoured in Time magazine’s prestigious list of the 100 “Most Influential People in AI 2024”. Released on Thursday, the list highlights the most impactful figures in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
‘Under Vaishnaw’s leadership, the country hopes to become one of the top five nations for semiconductor manufacturing—a key component for modern AI systems—within the next five years. Construction has begun on several factories. Yet, Vaishnaw faces significant challenges in realising these ambitions. India’s tech sector struggles with low private R&D investment and a lack of advanced manufacturing ecosystems. Its educational system is also catching up to produce the specialised workforce needed for cutting-edge AI and semiconductor development,” the magazine stated.
According to TIME, India’s journey to becoming a leader in the AI sector could face additional challenges due to high import tariffs on electronic components, global competition for talent and resources, and the complexities involved in rapidly upgrading infrastructure, especially the extensive power and water supply systems required for semiconductor manufacturing.
Co-founder, Infosys and co-founder & chairman, EkStep, Nandan Nilekani has also made it to the list. “Nilekani, the billionaire co-founder of Infosys, has spent fifteen years in and out of government developing digital public infrastructure for the world’s most populous country, earning him nicknames like ‘India’s Bill Gates'”, wrote TIME about the entrepreneur.
“Nilekani led India’s Aadhaar program, the world’s largest biometric identity card program. He promoted the program as a salve to welfare fraud, alongside a means to help improve tax collection, ease bank customer verification, among other benefits,” the magazine added.
The list also includes Anant Vijay Singh, Product Lead at Proton, and Rohit Prasad, Senior Vice President and Head Scientist of Artificial General Intelligence at Amazon.
The list also features globally renowned names such as Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, YouTuber Marques Brownlee, artist Lawrence Lek, comedian and AI creator King Willonius, and tech industry leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Satya Nadella.
First Published: Sep 05 2024 | 11:11 PM IST
