AI has been the talk of the town over the last few quarters, but there was someone who seems to have been awake to its potential even six years ago.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has revealed that PM Modi had asked him to address his Cabinet on the potential of AI as long as six years ago. “It was literally the first time any government leader, any national leader, asked me to address his Cabinet on this particular topic. It was long before anybody was talking about artificial intelligence,” Huang said.
“I have enjoyed so many meetings with the prime minister. He is such an incredible student, and every time I see him, he wants to learn about technology, artificial intelligence, the potential and opportunity for India, the impact on Indian society and industry,” Huang added.
PM Narendra Modi has a long history of being ahead of the curve in the field of tech. Even when he was a party worker in the mid 1990s, an interview had shown him using a laptop, with the interviewer stating that Modi was very interested in new technologies. “It is said you are extremely computer-savvy, you’re very interested in the internet. There are very few people in the BJP who love technology like this,” the interviewer had asked him. “I don’t have a lot of formal education,” the young Narendra Modi had then replied. But maybe it’s the blessings of God that I really enjoy tinkering with new technology and learning new things,” he had replied.
Modi had put his interest in technology to good use. He had also been ahead of the curve in joining Twitter, creating an account as far back in 2009 when few Indian politicians had even heard of the platform. In contrast, Rahul Gandhi had created a personal account on Twitter only in 2018 — until then, he’d only had an OfficeofRG account which shared staid updates. Modi’s early moves seem to have paid off, and he’s currently the most-followed world leader on Twitter with over 100 million followers.
PM Modi had also run a high-tech campaign during his first bid to become PM in 2014, with holograms of his likeness addressing virtual rallies around the country. In the latest 2024 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi used AI to translate his speeches into several Indian languages, and distributed them on social media.
And now it turns out that Narendra Modi had understood the importance of AI as long as 6 years ago, and asked the CEO of NVIDIA to address his cabinet on its potential. AI is now everywhere, and it’s possible that the Indian government could’ve had a head start in its implementation and its potential uses for India. India might have a lot of issues, but in a world that’s so heavily influenced by technology, it does have the benefit of having a leader who seems to intuitively understand it.