'Blaming Infosys, TCS, Zoho for India's AI gap is lazy': Startup founder defends IT giants

As discussions heat up regarding India's absence of a sovereign large language model (LLM), startup founder Vijay Thirumalai has stepped in to defend prominent IT companies like Infosys, TCS, and Zoho. He described the blame directed at these firms for the nation's AI gap as 'lazy' and lacking in intelligence. Thirumalai, who is the founder of Goldwater—a global mobility platform powered by AI—expressed his views amid growing scrutiny of India's AI strategy. This scrutiny intensified following Anthropic's recent decision to suspend access to its advanced AI models, prompted by a directive from the U.S. government. In a social media post, Thirumalai stated, "Blaming India's leaders like Infy, TCS, Zoho for not building an LLM is the most low IQ / lazy pushback for India not having sovereign LLMs." He highlighted the significant contributions of India's IT services sector in creating a robust middle class and instilling confidence in the ability of Indian companies to compete on a global scale. "They sent millions of Indians abroad, providing valuable remittances, and whatever middle class we have is largely because of IT/ITES companies, basically got us from 0-1," he noted. Drawing a parallel with North America, Thirumalai pointed out that established technology and consulting firms are rarely held accountable for not developing frontier AI companies. He remarked, "No one in the U.S. blames IBM, Accenture, or Deloitte for not building an LLM; no one in Canada blames Constellation for not creating ChatGPT." Additionally, he criticized the tendency among some Indian commentators to target successful business leaders. "Instead of showing gratitude, Indian intellectuals often berate those who have delivered. We can do better," he urged. The debate surrounding India's AI landscape has also reignited scrutiny of the IT services giants, particularly Infosys and TCS, which have faced criticism for prioritizing services over substantial investments in AI research and model development. Notably, Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, has previously suggested that India should concentrate on AI applications rather than trying to develop its own foundational LLM, citing the immense resources Silicon Valley firms can allocate to such projects. The conversation gained further momentum following Anthropic's announcement of suspending access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models due to U.S. government directives, which raised national security concerns. The company stated, "To ensure compliance with the directive, we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers."