Speaking at TiEcon Mumbai 2025, Murthy said, “I think somehow it has become a fashion in India to talk of AI for everything. I have seen several normal ordinary programs touted as AI.”
By Ada Jain
Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, often in the news for his candid opinions ranging from 70-hour work weeks to what is perfect parenting, has once again stirred discourse. Murthy has dismissed much of India’s AI hype, and cautioned that “Unsupervised data which uses deep learning and neural networks has much greater potential…But what I am seeing being called AI is silly, old programs.”
Speaking at TiEcon Mumbai 2025, Murthy added, “I think somehow it has become a fashion in India to talk of AI for everything. I have seen several normal ordinary programs touted as AI.”
At SXSW 2025, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna offered a similar grounded take on AI’s trajectory. Highlighting the synergy of AI and quantum computing, he argued that the combination could unlock nature’s mysteries in ways the current AI cannot. “AI learns from what we know. Quantum can help us discover what we don’t,” Krishna said. However, he dismissed notions of artificial general intelligence (AGI) emerging soon or AI replacing 90% of coding tasks within six months, calling such predictions overhyped.
READ: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna believes AI will not replace humans (March 13, 2025)
The global artificial intelligence boom is at a crossroads, with ambitious promises of economic growth clashing against practical challenges and uneven outcomes. From Amazon’s overhyped “Just Walk Out” technology to India’s trillion-dollar AI aspirations outlined by Accenture, the narrative around AI is evolving—tempered by skepticism, regulatory hurdles, and the realities of implementation.
Similar to Murthy’s claims, funding for India’s generative AI startups plummeted by 50% in the first half of 2024 compared to 2023, despite a seven-fold surge in industry activity—much of it focused on product launches rather than scalable solutions.
Interestingly, the U.S. currently faces a shortage of skilled AI talent. This could foster a meaningful partnership on the AI front which could help both countries.
India and the United States have a shared interest in using AI for cybersecurity, as recognized with the launch of a Defense Artificial Intelligence Dialogue at the Ministerial Dialogue in April 2022.
The easing of H-1B visa requirements for Indians is thus crucial, along with facilitating deeper cross-border cultural exchanges.
On the other hand, Indian unicorn, Krutrim, with ambitions to “own the AI stack” and launch its first AI chip in 2026 could also mean less reliance on U.S.-based platforms like Nvidia, OpenAI or TensorFlow in the long run.
India is also seeking to build computing capacity of just over 18,000 graphics processing units, Minister of Information Technology Vaishnaw stated recently. Home-grown E2E Networks and billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms are among the companies vying to build this capacity using processing units such as Nvidia’s H100 (banned for Chinese companies).
The initiative comes as China’s DeepSeek AI startup vowed to compete with American OpenAI. India also plans to host DeepSeek servers locally.
As a key player in the AI landscape, with Accenture projecting that AI could boost the country’s annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points by 2035, adding nearly $1 trillion to India’s economy.
Hence, rather than competition, it’s turning out to be collaboration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump announced the launch of the U.S.-India TRUST (Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology) initiative aimed at chips and AI. According to NITI Ayog, 40% of AI could be developed in India’s “Playground” due to lower costs compared to the United States. This paves the way for meaningful collaborations between the two, when combined with American AI infrastructure.
READ: China disrupts AI market with DeepSeek: A better, cheaper version of ChatGPT? (January 27, 2025)
“The US and India will work together to enable industry partnerships and investments in next generation data centers, cooperation on development and access to compute and processors for AI, for innovations in AI models and building AI applications for solving societal challenges while addressing the protections and controls necessary to protect these technologies and reduce regulatory barriers,” the joint statement revealed.
For now, Murthy’s statement may be partly true until new possibilities are unlocked for India through advancing the cross-border partnership TRUST.