Infosys among early backers of ChatGPT creator

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The tech industry has been buzzing about OpenAI’s Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. However, not many people know that Indian multinational corporation Infosys invested in OpenAI way back in 2015.

When asked about its investment in OpenAI, Salil Parekh, CEO and MD of Infosys, stated, “Several years ago, Infosys had supported this initiative in a very small way through a donation.” He went on to congratulate the progress that OpenAI has made so far, saying, “We have examples where we are using ChatGPT with client situations and that is starting to further increase productivity in automation.”

Parekh also stated that Infosys has no plans for further investments in OpenAI at the moment, but the company is looking for ways to work and partner with OpenAI as there are many technologies that can enhance the efficiency of building code faster. He added, “We have a huge focus and commitment through the past several years on automation, AI and ML.”

In a blog post in 2015, former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka had written that the company could benefit from OpenAI’s work. Apart from Infosys and Microsoft, other investors in OpenAI include Elon Musk and Sam Altman of Y-Combinator.

When asked about the future of AI, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures, stated that “Initially, the companies were built on AI, but now it has become a feature and most of the products are built on the back of AI platforms.” He added that AI-based products will be helpful in making strategic decisions and will become a norm in the future. He also stated that AI will not only be useful in data crunching but will also be helpful in making things simpler in the field of science.