Dilip Kumar emphasised the need for giving platform to people who write and build codes instead of celebrities.
The world of AI has been rife with competition ever since the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek made its entry, standing on par with US rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google’s Gemini at a fraction of the cost. Naturally, conversations in India also began with regard to the country’s efforts in the AI world.
With the upcoming Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) 2025, which claims to be Asia’s “largest AI event,” lined up, investor Dilip Kumar shared how he believed India would “never be able to compete with the US and China in technology” as long as the country treated it as a “spectacle.”
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Kumar criticised the speaker lineup set for the event, which includes Bollywood celebrities, cricketers, and YouTube influencers. “These are people who haven’t written a single line of code in their lives,” highlighted the investor.
Some of the speakers at the panel include cricketer Rahul Dravid, filmmaker Karan Johar, actor-investor Suniel Shetty, and influencer Raj Shamani.
Highlighting the need for India to stop considering technology as an “accessory” that requires political or celebrity endorsements, the investor said, ““A country doesn’t become a technology leader through celebrity endorsements or political speeches. India will never be a technology powerhouse if we parade technology as an accessory.”
He emphasised the need for giving the platform to people who write and build codes, people who actually work in the industry. “Real AI innovation doesn’t come from celebrity panels—it comes from builders. PhDs, engineers, founders—people who write code, build models, and deploy systems at scale,” he said.
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The entrepreneur observed the lack of an ecosystem to “listen and learn from builders” in India and how both the US and China emerged to lead AI through university labs, open-source contributions, and startup founders instead of holding influencer summits.
“Technology isn’t a spectator sport. If India wants to lead, we must put real builders at the center of the conversation,” the investor added.
I’m convinced India will never be able to compete with the US and China in technology if we keep treating it as a spectacle.
A bunch of influential folks are organising, Asia’s “largest AI event” in Mumbai later this month, and the speaker lineup has Bollywood celebrities,…— Dilip Kumar (@kmr_dilip) February 3, 2025
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Several people agreed with Kumar. One X user remarked, “People in India never gather in big numbers nor it gets the media attention if there aren’t any celebrities lined up. It’s all about glamour. Everything else including the objective of the event takes a backseat.”
Another stated, “India’s AI ambition needs cultural rewiring: idolize creators, not curators. Tech leadership isn’t about hashtags or hype, it’s forged in classrooms, code repositories, and quiet labs. Celebrate grit, not glamour. Let’s root for obsessives, not influencers.”
Yet another X user pointed out, “There is a reason why these people are called… They attract sponsors. Try doing an event and arrange sponsors with no big names. Hardly anyone will come. It doesn’t make it right, but that’s what it is, as if now.”
The Government of Maharashtra, in collaboration with the Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM), will host the second edition of Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) 2025 from February 24 to March 1, 2025, to position Mumbai as a global AI hub.
