Paras Chopra—who sold Wingify for $200M—recruiting for foundational AI lab
What's the story
Paras Chopra, the entrepreneur who recently sold his software-as-a-service (SaaS) start-up Wingify for $200 million to Everstone Capital, is now eyeing a new venture. He is assembling a team of experts and enthusiasts to build a foundational artificial intelligence (AI) lab in India. "I'm assembling a team to put a proposal for India's Al mission if you're interested in joining the team full-time or part-time," Chopra announced on X, sharing a Google Docs form.
National initiative
Government's plan to develop generative AI model
On January 30, the Indian government announced plans to develop a generative AI model. The move is aimed at competing with global players like OpenAI's ChatGPT and China's DeepSeek. The latter has recently made waves with its affordable AI assistant. The project will be supported by the IndiaAI Compute Facility, which has secured nearly 19,000 GPUs for the task.
Strategic approach
Chopra emphasizes the importance of efficiency
Chopra emphasized three reasons why efficiency should be the priority for this mission. Unlike Western AI labs, India doesn't have a billion dollars to spend on GPUs in the first place, he said. This financial limitation could lead to innovative problem-solving approaches and increase creativity. Finally, he praised the human brain's efficiency in terms of energy and data usage, recommending it as a model for AI development.
Potential impact
Vision for AI's role in economic growth
Chopra believes solving complex problems is key to economic growth. "If we crack super-intelligent reasoning models that think creatively, we will turbocharge the growth and have a real chance of solving many of the world's current unsolved problems like poverty, cancer, and the mysteries of universe and consciousness," he said. This highlights his ambitious vision for the impact of advanced AI on global issues.
Twitter Post
Take a look at Chopra's post
I'm starting something soon.
— Paras Chopra (@paraschopra) January 31, 2025
Join me in making state-of-the-art AI models for the world from 🇮🇳India. pic.twitter.com/OKYogfsvaA