"GPT-4o (o for 'omni') is the first model to come out of the omni team, OpenAI’s first natively fully multimodal model." - Prafulla Dhariwal

Bill Gates once reportedly remarked, "If we stop employing foreign engineers, especially from India, there will be another Microsoft born in India." And well, it goes without saying that Indians are now making waves in almost all sectors across the world, shaping the future with their unparalleled vision and skills. In fact, in the booming sector of artificial intelligence, many Indians are working at the forefront, contributing to groundbreaking innovations.

OpenAI's latest AI model, GPT-4o, has been making headlines since its launch. And guess what, it's again an Indian who played a pivotal role in its development. The company's CEO, Sam Altman, recently gave a shoutout to the Indian computer scientist Prafulla Dhariwal for his role in the revolutionary project. He wrote on X, "GPT-4o would not have happened without the vision, talent, conviction, and determination of @prafdhar over a long period of time. That (along with the work of many others) led to what I hope will turn out to be a revolution in how we use computers."

GPT-4o would not have happened without the vision, talent, conviction, and determination of @prafdhar over a long period of time. that (along with the work of many others) led to what i hope will turn out to be a revolution in how we use computers. https://t.co/f3TdQT03b0

— Sam Altman (@sama) May 15, 2024

(Credit: Sam Altman)

However, Dhariwal is certainly not the first Indian to have made significant contributions to the AI space. As we celebrate his achievement, let's have a look at some other Indians who have also made their mark in this sector.

Kalika Bali

Kalika Bali is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research India and is one of the biggest names in the world of artificial intelligence. In one of her interviews, she revealed that she aims to "eliminate gender biases that often plague AI training data sourced from the internet". And she focuses on creating "gender intentional" datasets in five Indian languages spoken by over a billion people.

She spearheads the project Mélange which delves into code-mixed language data that is important for natural human-computer interactions and speech technologies.

Pushmeet Kohli

Pushmeet Kohli is widely renowned for his research on AI safety and the development of the AlphaFold protein structure prediction system. He currently works as the Vice President of research for the "Secure and Reliable AI" and "AI for Science and Sustainability" at Google DeepMind. Prior to joining DeepMind, he was a partner scientist and director of research at Microsoft Research.

He majorly focuses on the applications of machine learning and computer vision. On the other hand, he has made contributions to game theory, discrete algorithms, and psychometrics.

P. Anandan

One of the most esteemed names in the AI space, P. Anandan is the ex-CEO of Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence - a not-for-profit Research institute that develops artificial intelligence-based applications for social welfare. Also, he is the former managing director at Microsoft Research India, which he founded in January 2005 in Bangalore.

He has predominantly worked in the areas of visual motion analysis, video surveillance, and 3D scene modeling from images and video. He has published over 60 papers, leading to significant developments in the AI space.

The list obviously doesn't end here. Besides these names, it also includes Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Sunita Sarawagi, Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, and Vishal Dhupar among others.