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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).
Vaishnaw’s leadership in semiconductor manufacturing
“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 about Vaishnaw.
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.
Anil Kapoor recognised for legal battle against AI misuse
Kapoor has been included in Time’s AI list a year after achieving a significant legal victory in September 2023, when the Delhi High Court issued an interim order preventing 16 entities from misusing his name, voice, image, or other personal traits for commercial purposes without his consent. The actor took legal action in response to the widespread circulation of altered videos and emojis featuring his image and his iconic phrase “jhakaas,” popularised by his 1985 film Yudh.
“Bollywood is one of the world’s largest film industries, rolling out more than 1,500 movies every year. But Kapoor’s ruling comes at a time when the industry is grappling with how to regulate the misuse of AI. Last year, uncanny deepfake videos of popular female Indian actors including Alia Bhatt and Rashmika Mandanna went viral, while AI-generated videos of Indian actors Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh alarmed the country during this year’s Indian election, where they appeared to criticise Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said the magazine.
Nandan Nilekani’s role in digital public infrastructure highlighted
Co-founder of Infosys and co-founder & chairman of 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.
Other Indians in the list
The list also includes Anant Vijay Singh, Product Lead at Proton; Rohit Prasad, Senior Vice President and Head Scientist of Artificial General Intelligence at Amazon; Shiv Rao, Co-founder and CEO of Abridge; and Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity.
Global AI influencers: From Hollywood to Silicon Valley
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
