Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of parliament (MP) Raghav Chadha raised the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) on Tuesday, calling for India to rebuke OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, who allegedly referred to India’s potential in AI as “hopeless”.
Chadha, an MP from Punjab, was speaking in the upper house (Rajya Sabha) on Tuesday, wherein he questioned Indian government’s stance on AI when compared to countries like U.S. and China that have recently released their indigenous AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, GrokAI and DeepSeek.
“When OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman was asked about India’s potential in AI, he dismissed it calling it hopeless. I think the time has come for India to rebuke Sam Altman and prove that India is not just a consumer of AI but also a producer,” said Chadha.
Back in 2023, Altman had referred to India’s efforts in AI as hopeless. However, recently in 2025, Altman visited India and highly praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts in AI sector.
Chadha also questioned the government’s initiatives over AI and whether India is lagging behind in this race for AI global dominance. He also called for a “Make AI in India” approach.
“AI is more important for future of India. America has its own AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok that are indigenous models. Even China has models like DeepSeek which are more advanced in technology and features. Where is India in this AI world? Is India falling behind? Can’t India create its own generative AI model?,” asked MP Chadha to Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh in the house on Tuesday.
Chadha spoke on the poor representation of India when it comes to AI patents in the past one decade. He also acknowledged that US and China have a head start in AI.
“From 2010-2022, among the AI patents that have been registered, US has 60% share and China has 20%. Despite India being fifth largest economy, our share is just 0.5% in AI patents. It’s true that U.S. and China have had a head start in AI for the past 4-5 years, but it’s because they have invested in research, academia, and AI development,” said Chadha.
He also lamented that despite having talent for AI in Indian students, the government is not able to use that potential.
“It is said that globally Indian population accounts for 15% share in AI workforce, which is 4.5 lakh Indian AI professionals who are working for foreign countries. India ranks third globally in AI penetration skills. This means India has ability, hardworking people, brainpower and a functioning digital economy with internet penetration for over 900 million people. But today, India has become a consumer of AI and not a producer of AI,” said Chadha.
Also Read: Can India Build AI Cheaper than China’s DeepSeek?
