What do you think of India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw comparing the Indian government's efforts to build a localised AI model to sending a mission to the moon at a fraction of the cost?

Does India have critical areas that need AI models?

So i doubt India ruffled any feathers with a moon mission

Does India have the necessary AI Talent?

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Does India have the necessary set up in place?

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Without any of this being discussed, Ashwin going directly to cost, seems a very untenable argument

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The States and China, they did a lot more in Mars than India did in terms of exploration and study

A Maruti 800 and a Ferrari both transport people from one point to another but their entire purpose is extremely different is it not?

Didn't the Chinese ones bring some soil back?

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For one thing, moon travel is not a commercial thing and the benefits of moon travel are primarily futuristic and at a level which cannot be immediately monetized

Is it not an entirely different ball game?

On the other hand, a mission to the moon, something already done by everyone else of consequence, is not something that would challenge anyone's interest in any way

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Developing a Multimodal AI means challenging a 500 Billion dollar to possibly 1 Trillion dollar worth of investments made by the Big 5 Companies in the States - Google, Meta, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft

The only answer would be a possible advantage for ISRO, sometime in the distant future

A second point is - the Moon Mission was inexpensive because it was extremely basic

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Was that a comparable argument ?

India made a Maruti 800 that could take a trip between two places, at a lower cost that the States that had a Ferrari take the same trip long ago

So the Minister gave an erroneous analogy which makes me wonder if he knows what he is talking about

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Didn't the States put living people on the moon?

Now India has to make a Galardo and compete with a Ferrari made by the States and a Porsche made by China

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It is a strange argument

Ashwin talked of the Moon mission being at a fraction of the cost but did he also talk of the objectives of the various moon missions of other countries?

So if you translate his speech, is he saying India would create a low cost AI model which will fulfil some very basic objectives and not be anywhere near the level of the latest versions of GPT or Deepseek?

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Would you be able to tell me how either benefited the Indian population?

I don't think the Big 5 Companies will take that lying down and may place a lot of obstacles in India's way

Your Mars mission was also inexpensive because it was extremely basic

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