News India Times

T he Big Artificial Intelligence (AI) hype machine is running in over- drive. The US and China keep un- veiling “revolutionary” new models that supposedly think like humans. Each one is bigger, costlier, and noisier than the last, while burning enough elec- tricity to light a city. The machines keep growing, but the progress keeps shrinking. India has become a casualty of the hype, dazzled by OpenAI’s trillion-dollar dreams. Every policy discussion now seems to revolve around building an In- dian ChatGPT. The reflex is to spend, as if leadership in AI can be bought with chips and data centres. It simply can’t. The reality is that progress will come from solving real problems, not from join- ing the race to build the next giant model. The AI transforming business today has little to do with Silicon Valley’s fantasies. The real breakthroughs are coming from smaller, simpler systems that analyse data, spot patterns, and deliver results. The fact is that large language models (LLMs) that are driving this global race have become the bonfires of modern computing. They consume vast amounts of hardware, energy, and money to pro- duce sentences that sound good but are often gibberish. They hallucinate, hide their reasoning, and make disastrous mistakes. Companies that actually use AI, instead of announcing it in press releases, already understand this. They are moving to fine-tuned, open-source models that do specific jobs and run on everyday hardware for a fraction of the cost. That is exactly what my team at Vionix Biosciences figured out. We don’t build chatbots or virtual assis- tants. We build AI that reads the faint light signatures of matter, the optical emission spectra of metals, molecules, and biological samples, to detect con- taminants, disease markers, or chemical changes. Our breakthroughs come from physics and chemistry meeting math and computation, a blend of deep science and real-world engineering. This is far from the hype of generative AI. Our models learn frommeasured data, not scraped text. They see what is physi- cally there and avoid speculation. We run them on NVIDIA A100 and mid-range GPUs that cost a few thousand dollars. The clusters used for large language models can cost millions, while affordable processors give us everything we need and allow us to analyse data continuously. This is where the real value and magic of AI truly lie — in science, mathematics, and data analysis, not in the hype and noise coming out of Silicon Valley. And this is the type of AI devel- opment that India needs to focus on. Our chips are hosted on Ola’s Krutrim, one of India’s leading AI platforms. Systems like this are built for what companies actu- ally need: Secure, efficient, affordable computing. Krutrim and its competitors can become the backbone of India’s scientific and industrial AI revolution, a local alternative to the GPU arms race in theWest. Further, every result our system produces can be traced back to the light spectrum that created it. In business and science, traceability is everything. If an AI approves a loan, flags a transaction, or detects cancer, we must know why. Without that clarity, the output isn’t intelligence; it’s blind automation. That is the fundamen- tal defect of today’s large language models. They mimic intelligence the way parrots mimic speech, producing sentences that sound convincing but have no grasp of meaning or truth. When they err, there is no way to audit or retrace the steps that produced the output. RomeshWadhwani, one of Silicon Val- ley’s most accomplished entrepreneurs, made the same point in a recent opinion article in a newspaper. He called it “a losing game” for India to try building its own versions of OpenAI or Anthropic. “India should instead focus on the next wave of small reasoning models, compact and purpose-built systems trained on local data for government, business, and consumer use,” he said. “It will allow the country to lead in applied AI rather than chase the cap- ital-intensive race of large language models.” The good news for India is that this is exactly what is happening on the ground, outside the venture capital and policy echo chambers, as I have seen firsthand. Institutes such as the IITs, IISc, and BITS are still producing hybrid minds fluent in math, code, and machinery. They move easily between the lab and the laptop, blending theory with engineering in ways that make innovation tangible. This mix of curiosity and techni- cal depth is what gives India its edge. The next generation of AI will be built this way — not in research papers or massive data centres, but in universities and startups that combine science with purpose. So, instead of pouring public money into another language model, India should focus on building a foundation for scientific and industrial AI: Shared data sets, university–startup partnerships, and hardware suited to business needs. As well, India’s semiconductor mis- sion should not chase NVIDIA’s high-end GPUs. It should design purpose-built chips for smaller, task-specific models, processors that are cheaper, use less power, and can be manufactured in India at scale. That would give its industry a real technological edge. The tech giants can keep chasing size and headlines, but the real break- throughs will come from applications that combine science with practicality and frugality and jugaad. This is the real AI opportunity for India — and the world. Vivek Wadhwa is CEO, Vionix Biosciences. The views expressed are personal. www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh Founder, Chairman & Publisher Ilayas Quraishi Chief Operating Officer Ela Dutt Editor Archana Adalja Contributing Editor T. Vishnudatta Jayaraman Advisor Arun Shah Ahmedabad Bureau Chief Peter Ferreira, Deval Parikh, Freelance Photographers Bhailal M. Patel Executive Vice President Jim Gallentine Business Development Manager - U.S. Shahnaz Sheikh Senior Manager Advertising & Marketing Sonia Lalwani Advertising Manager Shailu Desai Advertising New York Muslima Shethwala Syed Sheeraz Mahmood Advertising Chicago Digant Sompura Consultant for Business Development Ahmedabad, India Hervender Singh Circulation Manager Main Office Editorial & Corporate Headquarters 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Tel. (212) 675-7515 Fax. (212) 675-7624 New York Office Tel: (718) 784-8555 E-mails editor@newsindiatimes.com advertising@newsindia-times.com subscription@newsindia-times.com Website www.newsindiatimes.com Chicago Office 8846 Lavergne Ave, Skokie, IL 60077 Tel. (773) 856-3345 California Office 650 Vermont Ave, Suite #46 Anaheim, CA 92805 Mumbai Office Nikita Ajay Pai Goregaon, West Mumbai Ahmedabad Office 303 Kashiparekh Complex C.G. Road, 29 Adarsh Society Ahmedabad 380009 Tel. 26446947 F ax. 26565596 Published weekly, Founded in 1975. The views expressed on the opinion pages are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of News India Times. Copyright © 2025, News India Times News India Times (ISSN 0199-901X) is published every Friday by Parikh Worldwide Media LLC., 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Periodicals postage paid at Newark, N.J. , and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address change to News India Times, 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Annual Subscription: United States: $28 Disclaimer: Parikh Worldwide Media assumes no liability for claims/ assumptions made in advertisements and advertorials. Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and Parikh Worldwide Media does not officially endorse, and is not responsible or liable for them. Image generated by DALL-E 3, symbolizing advanced artificial intel- ligence. Public Domain. Author: Alenoach. @Commons.Wikimedia.org -Continued On Page 4 PHOTO:CourtesyVivekWadhwa Opinion News India Times (December 20, 2025 - December 26, 2025) December 26, 2025 3 Stop Hyping Big AI: Smart, Small Models Are The Future ByVivekWadhwa “The reality is that progress will come from solving real prob- lems, not from joining the race to build the next giant model”