In this episode of Interpreting India, host Shruti Mittal is joined by Kailash Nadh, chief technology officer of Zerodha and co-founder of FOSS United, to provide a technologist’s perspective on one of the most consequential debates shaping the future of artificial intelligence: the open versus closed source AI debate. Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving AI landscape, this conversation examines risks, rewards, and the strategic implications of open-source AI for India.
In this episode of Interpreting India, host Shruti Mittal is joined by Kailash Nadh, chief technology officer of Zerodha and co-founder of FOSS United, to provide a technologist’s perspective on one of the most consequential debates shaping the future of artificial intelligence: the open versus closed source AI debate. Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving AI landscape, this conversation examines risks, rewards, and the strategic implications of open-source AI for India.
The episode opens with an in-depth discussion about the value of open source as a model of development and how the definitional contours of open-source AI differ from those of traditional open-source software. The discussion also explores the characteristics and challenges that distinguish open-source AI models from conventional software development approaches.
The discussion goes on to address recent strategic shifts in the AI industry towards more open development, sparked by developments like DeepSeek's open-source R1 model and leaked internal assessments suggesting that open-source communities may be outpacing tech giants.
The discussion also explores the complex trade-offs between open and closed AI development. While open-source models offer transparency, democratization, and innovation benefits, they also present cybersecurity vulnerabilities and potential national security risks. Nadh addresses concerns about jailbreaking vulnerabilities in open models, using DeepSeek's recent security lapses as an example, while also examining the limitations and risks of closed proprietary systems.
Nadh also provides his perspective on India-specific considerations, including the government's IndiaAI Mission and the decision to develop a homegrown large language model, and discuss the strategic implications of India's approach, which is not expected to be open-source at first, and the potential for India to make meaningful progress in driving open-source AI development as a matter of policy.
Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
In this episode of Interpreting India, Adarsh Ranjan, research analyst at Carnegie India, speaks with Jaspreet Bindra, founder of AI&Beyond and Tech Whisperer Limited, UK, and author of 'Winning with AI: Your Guide to AI Literacy.' Jaspreet brings a practitioner's perspective to questions that often get lost in the noise around AI: not just what is changing, but whether people, organizations, and policymakers are actually prepared for it.
Adarsh Ranjan, Jaspreet Bindra
In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh, associate fellow at Carnegie India, speaks with Saurabh Garg, secretary at the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, who chaired the working group on democratizing AI resources at the India AI Impact Summit.
Nidhi Singh, Saurabh Garg
In this episode of Interpreting India, Tejas Bharadwaj is joined by Almudena Azcárate Ortega, senior program analyst at Secure World Foundation, for a wide-ranging conversation on how emerging technologies, particularly AI, are reshaping the landscape of space security. A space lawyer and policy scholar with deep experience in multilateral processes, Almudena brings both technical nuance and diplomatic realism to questions that most space conversations still treat as hypothetical.
Tejas Bharadwaj, Almudena Azcárate Ortega
In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh is joined by Raymond Ononiwu, founder and CEO of Horus Labs, for a conversation that cuts through the noise around compute, data centres, and AI infrastructure to ask a more fundamental question: who is this all actually being built for?
Nidhi Singh, Raymond Ononiwu
In this episode of Interpreting India, Vrinda Sahai is joined by Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki, Advisor for Trade and Economic Security at the Jacques Delors Institute, for a detailed conversation on the India-EU Free Trade Agreement. After decades of slow-moving negotiations, both sides have arrived at what is shaping up to be the most ambitious trade deal India has ever signed. Nicolas unpacks what is in the agreement, what is missing, and what its success will depend on in the years ahead.
Vrinda Sahai, Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki
