[0:01]Thank you very much. Uh, wonderful to have uh, Dr. Premchandra Sagar here at the India today AI summit.
[0:13]Uh, he's a politician uh, who's also an entrepreneur. Uh, runs a chain of colleges and hospitals in and around Karnataka.
[0:24]But what struck me when I spoke to you and which is why I believe it's important to have your voice here is that you are on your way to creating India's first factory AI campus.
[0:37]Uh, AI factory campus. Now tell us what this AI factory campus is all about because academia is one of the areas, education is one of the areas where AI is expected to make the next big leap.
[0:50]Thank you Rajdeep for having me here. Well, uh, you know, we understand that the world and India is at the cusp of a major disruption.
[1:03]Now, essentially, you know, whenever disruptive phases come, it's an opportunity that a nation can leap frog ahead.
[1:12]So what we found across, I mean, in this uh, you know, era of disruption, there's something that an ecosystem needs to be developed.
[1:21]So for an ecosystem to be developed, you know, as they say, the five-layer cake, which is commonly said in today's AI world, you have to build that.
[1:30]So what we did at Danand Sagar institution that at Danand Sagar University is to build an AI first university.
[1:40]So essentially was to build the multi-layer. The first part of the multi-layer was to create self-sufficiency in energy.
[1:46]So we've gone completely on a net zero campus where we are generating our the power uh to to fuel the entire campus internally.
[1:54]We are a 150-acre campus, so we've been able to create the raw energy that is needed.
[2:02]And the next part of it was to build what we what we call as the uh the AI raw compute power.
[2:08]So we've tied up with one of the global majors where we are building in one of the largest raw compute powers in the global south.
[2:18]When I say it it is the largest raw compute powers, it would be about 160 GPUs of what we call as the current new generation.
[2:27]I mean, I can't speak much about it, but the raw compute power would be probably one of the infrastructure layers.
[2:37]This would go across on ultimately to create platforms.
[2:40]Now, the platforms would be apart from the the the software stack that they would have as an as the layer in between, but a stack which can talk to other kinds of software.
[2:53]Because what we see across, this disruption can create havoc if you are not well prepared.
[3:00]But if you are able to take advantage and build that ecosystem around us, we are going to bring in, probably, we will be able to empower our young graduates who will go across to rule the world.
[3:13]So the stack that would go across is essentially, we are not worried about generative AI.
[3:18]I mean, because AI in abundance is going to come in.
[3:23]As machines become more sentient and they are able to go across as the as the ability of the chips to process more information, I think it goes down into the next level and we are seeing agent AI.
[3:32]And we've seen one aspect of agentic AI which replaces a lot of tasks.
[3:39]Now, I'm not worried about the agentic AI too, because probably it's going to bring in efficiency and probably bring up speed of work.
[3:45]But what I'm worried across is what happens when agentic AI becomes a little more sentient and then it gets on into the physical AI part.
[3:52]So how do we integrate this in the mindset of young people and this is an opportunity for us.
[3:59]While of course, we have lagged in in terms of, you know, getting down into into the robotic part of AI, right?
[4:05]When but let's assume that we are able to we we are able to quickly, uh, you know, take advantage of the opportunities that will come in, so you move on into the robotic part or or the physical AI part, which can probably prepare us to handle handle the problems of tomorrow.
[4:20]Let me let me break that down because you run an institute with more than 40,000 students.
[4:26]They come from different backgrounds. How do you make sure that all those students on your campus are AI skilled?
[4:36]Is that, is that simply in creating an ecosystem that is A puts AI first.
[4:41]Is that your advice to other campuses, which are looking at AI now as a as a tool for the future, that every student as he or she walks into your campus will almost instantly be drawn into this AI ecosystem?
[4:57]What happens to the old order, if I may call it that?
[5:00]Well, you know, the first important thing is, you know, you'll have to build a dream, right? A dream is you create an ecosystem where you actually start creating a dream.
[5:11]And once you start believing in a dream, then you you you know how to build build it further.
[5:16]And that's the whole aspect is you got to understand and realize that AI is going to dominate your life ahead.
[5:22]So how do you prepare yourself to go into that journey and probably ride over AI?
[5:27]I mean, as you said, I I was listening earlier, the the issue that comes across over there, would you allow AI to take over you or you would want to ride over AI?
[5:37]Now imagine the the human mind is an extremely complex mind, you know, which has evolved over millions or or or a long period of time.
[5:47]I mean, as far as as the Homo sapiens is there, we are 40,000 years old. Right? And we've evolved.
[5:50]And we've been able to surmount problems at many times.
[5:56]The ability for us as you said is critical reasoning, right?
[6:00]So as we go across, we will gradually lose some of our skills.
[6:04]We were if if we recall ourselves, we were hunter gatherers. We don't hunt anymore. We've lost that skill, but we've acquired newer skills.
[6:15]So the ability for us is to create this ecosystem for how can we go across to keep pace with the with the skills that AI will move across.
[6:20]So what happens to curricula as it exists? The fact is that universities like yours ultimately have to work towards what is a state or a government imposed curricula.
[6:33]Given that, how does how do you now almost subvert the system or superimpose on the system your AI dream?
[6:42]You are, you have an AI dream, your you partnered with Nvidia, which is fantastic.
[6:48]But what happens on the ground with students who've come through a particular school system into a college.
[6:55]How do you make them AI first enabled children?
[6:59]Well, you know, the the first thing is, you know, taking cognizance of the fact that, you know, you'll have to keep into what we call as accelerated learning.
[7:07]I think that's the first thing that every individual of tomorrow needs to know.
[7:11]You will have to prepare yourself to say that, you know, what you learned yesterday may not be relevant today or probably what you learned today may not be relevant tomorrow.
[7:23]So the the ability, the first thing is you'll have to get get drawn to the fact that you'll have to discard what you learned yesterday.
[7:29]Yes, the fundamentals are important, but you need to build on the fundamentals.
[7:34]You cannot uh, you know, uh, uh, hold on to say that, you know, this was the foundation that we led and this foundation is going to help us through.
[7:40]Give me a concrete example of how you think it'll change academic learning.
[7:44]See, one aspect that would come across over there, probably, you know, you could probably get down into uh there are many answers to the questions that we raised, right?
[7:55]There are there there's something called as a as a straightjacketed scientific answers, sometimes there's a philosophical answer to all of that.
[8:00]Now I can tailor make what I would want with with the help of AI.
[8:06]I mean, I could go across to probably there could be doubts well within me that I would want to erase.
[8:11]Probably I could use the reasoning model and then probably, uh, you know, find find an answer to what I would want or probably I would want a a step-based learning system that I would, uh, wish to go across.
[8:25]The timidity that I would have is probably now lost, you know, now I become more bolder to probably, you know, get down deep in and analyze myself.
[8:35]Do you do you fear though that there will be this AI divide like a digital divide, given the vast inequalities in a country like India?
[8:42]Honestly, yes. Honestly, yes. Yes. I'm being very honest, I'm being very candid. And in a candid answer, yes, one of the significant challenges that we will have.
[8:54]I mean, you've talked about job loss. Yes. Well, I agree with you.
[8:59]If you don't prepare yourself, we are at we are going to face we are we are going to face a serious challenge.
[9:02]We have to accept the fact.
[9:05]I mean, being a public man myself in the past, many times, you know, we always want to paint a rosy picture.
[9:10]We say everything is going to be hunky-dory, we are going to have things across, but look at the situation over there when you are going to have, you know, robotic AI.
[9:17]It's not too far off. The machines are being sentient.
[9:22]You're only talking of one part of GPUs.
[9:27]Right? What happens when you get down into quantum? And quantum is not far away.
[9:30]You're already the disturbances are getting addressed.
[9:33]There's a big race in the quantum world. Now, imagine what what whatever that's being done today is completely going to be, you know, it's further going to be miniaturized.
[9:42]The timelines are going to change. The one aspect that probably AI cannot define is human happiness and probably human empathy and human engagement.
[9:55]And that's where the relevance of us to relate to human happiness, to human engagement, I think that becomes very critical.
[10:01]And I think that's the significant part of of of an education system that we need to exist for ourselves, we need to exist for each other.
[10:08]I think that's the key part. Fascinating. In fact, particularly what you said there and I'm glad that you are candid, uh about the challenges that lie ahead, but there are opportunities also as you said, and we will hopefully make our children future ready for those opportunities.
[10:24]For setting a trend with your uh, dream to create your campus as a an AI factory as as you put it.
[10:31]I think it is uh fascinating to have you here, Dr. Sagar. Thank you so much for joining us here at the India today AI summit.
[10:39]Give him a big hand, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you, Rajdeep.
