Gurnani: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman clarifies to Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, says comments taken out of context – Times of India

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has clarified that his comments on competing with the company at the ET Conversations event had been taken out of context. While replying to a question from Peak XV Partners managing director Rajan Anandan he had said at the event that it was “totally hopeless to compete with us (OpenAI) on training foundation models,” citing a hypothetical scenario in which three engineers with $10 million try to emulate the achievement.
To this Tech Mahindra MD and CEO CP Gurnani tweeted: “Dear @sama, from one CEO to another… challenge accepted,” citing the OpenAI CEO’s comment. “OpenAI founder Sam Altman said it’s pretty hopeless for Indian companies to try and compete with them,” Gurnani’s tweet read.
Replying to Gurnani’s tweet, Altman said, “This is really taken out of context! The question was about competing with us with $10 million, which I really do think is not going to work. But I still said try! However, I think it’s the wrong question.”
He went on to add, “The right question is what a startup can do that’s never been done before, that will contribute a new thing to the world. I have no doubt Indian startups can and will do that! And no one but the builders can answer that question.”
The question and the answer …
Anandan asked, “If you want to build foundational models, how should we think about that? Where is it that a team from India, three super smart engineers with not $100 million, but let’s say $10 million, could actually build something truly substantial?”
To this, Altman had replied, “The way this works is we’re going to tell you, it’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models, you shouldn’t try and it’s your job to try anyway. And I believe both of those things. I think it is pretty hopeless.”
On Twitter, in response to Altman’s remark, Anandan had said, “Thank you @sama for the clear answer. As you said, ‘it is hopeless, but you will try anyway’. 5000 years of Indian entrepreneurship has shown us that we should never underestimate the Indian entrepreneur. We do intend to try.”