Wednesday, 13 March 2025: Speaking at the TiEcon Mumbai 2025, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy recently expressed his concern about the “exaggerated” claims surrounding AI (artificial intelligence) in India.

Murthy stated that numerous systems marketed as AI are just regular programs. He said, “I find that most of the so-called AI, I see, is silly and old programming,” he said.

In his view, authentic AI employs machine learning for predictive correlations and deep learning to emulate human brain functions for unsupervised learning.

“It has become a fashion in India to talk of AI in everything. Ordinary programs are touted as AI,” he added.

Murthy said, “Unsupervised algorithms which use deep learning and neural networks are the ones that have much greater potential to do things that will mimic human beings better and better”.

While technological progress inevitably leads to job changes, Murthy believes its supportive application fuels economic growth. “In each tech, certain jobs will be eliminated, but if used in an assisted manner, we can grow the economy,” he said.

Murthy said, “AI for example, if you use it in autonomous vehicles for transport, hospital care, it will lead to expansion of those companies and create jobs”.

He encouraged startups to aim for global leadership by comparing themselves to the best.

Murthy said, “In the beginning, it looks impossible, but the moment the mind-set has been created, you’ll start making progress”.

“That’s how you solve the problem, and not with freebies. Our poverty will vanish like dew on a sunny morning,” he added.

He said, “Every startup that failed did not follow this”.

“What you can do is, when subsidies are provided, you can ask for something in return. If you give free electricity for the first six months, at the end of it, we’ll find out if children are reading more and if their performance is better in school,” he added.

While guiding entrepreneurs, Murthy advised that gaining the respect of all stakeholders– customers, employees, investors, and regulators is very important.

“If you think in terms of doing good to society, you’ll get repeat business, employees will join and investors, vendors will put up with you in difficult times, politicians will want you to succeed,” he said.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/narayana-murthy-warns-against-ai-hype-in-india-urges-startups-to-aim-big-125031201290_1.html