New Delhi, June 13 (IANS). Zoho co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) Sridhar Vembu on Saturday said the recent restrictions imposed by the US on access to advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models show how important technological self-reliance has become. He said that technology has now become the center of national security and sovereignty.
Responding to Anthropic’s advanced AI models “Mythos” and “Fable” being suspended for users outside the US due to US government export control regulations, Vembu said the development shows that strategic technologies are now influencing global geopolitics.
“This is a big deal. Access to Mythos and Fable AI models has been closed to everyone outside the US,” he said in a post on social media platform X.
Describing technology as the “biggest weapon”, Vembu said today national sovereignty and national security are directly linked to technological capabilities.
“Globalization is now over and India has to carve its own path,” he said. Vembu said the incident is a signal to India that it should further strengthen its domestic tech ecosystem.
He appealed to Indian organizations to adopt small AI models, including open source AI models developed in India and China. He said that with adequate efforts these models can also be made effective.
He raised the question, “When someone is not even ready to sell you the technology, then why should they be paid?”
Vembu also stressed the need for greater investment in research and development (R&D). He said that creating state-of-the-art AI models requires huge financial resources and advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are currently concentrated in only a few countries in the world.
According to him, training the new generation of AI models may require an investment of tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. Additionally, access to essential computing resources is now subject to various restrictions.
He said that India should focus on alternative and low-cost research methods instead of spending heavily like global AI companies.
“Zoho has been working for a long time on alternative R&D methods that cost much less,” Vembu said. He expressed confidence that with continued innovation and patience, good results can be achieved.
Entrepreneur Vembu further said that even though developing cutting-edge AI models requires huge capital and specialized hardware, India can also strengthen its AI capabilities through low-resource innovative methods.
Meanwhile, AI company Anthropic announced that the US government has issued it an export control directive, requiring it to close access to its advanced “Fable 5” and “Mythos 5” models to foreign nationals. This ban will also apply to the company’s own foreign employees, whether they are inside or outside the US.
The company said that access to these models is being temporarily closed to comply with government guidance, while its other AI models will remain available as before.
Anthropic also said that it believes this decision was taken due to a misunderstanding and that the company is making efforts to restore access to the affected models as soon as possible.
–IANS
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