The Bengaluru Tech Summit 2023 included an interesting fireside chat between N. R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder and chairman emeritus, Infosys and Nikhil Kamath, co-founder, Zerodha about AI technologies gaining prominence and if and how it will cause a disruption to businesses.
Today, many businesses and tech companies are facing possible disruption thanks to the rapid growth and adoption of artificial intelligence and its technologies, including ChatGPT gaining quick prominence. However, Murthy seems unworried by it.
He shared that any company, irrespective of the industry, needs to build a mindset that adopts and practises constant innovation. If the company manages to do so, it won’t be fazed in the slightest by the likes of ChatGPT or other large language models (LLMs). For a company like Infosys, the only insurance it has is the ability to innovate. Murthy said that as long as CEOs encourage such thinking among employees, then one need not worry about ChatGPT.
“The reality is that the human mind is the most flexible and the most powerful instrument that ever existed. We started with the invention of the wheel and now we’re at ChatGPT 4 today. It has been a journey of asking questions as to how we can use tech to make our lives better, more productive and how can we reduce the cost of tech and how can we make tech all-pervasive and how can we use tech to better transparency and efficiency.”
“All of that has happened due to invention that happens once in a while or through innovation that happens continuously. So the only insurance that companies like Infosys have for their survival and ability to succeed, is the ability to create a mindset in the organisation that constantly innovates on improving productivity and more. As long as the CEOs of companies encourage such thinking among employees of the company then you don’t have to worry about ChatGPT or LLM or anything that comes,” said Murthy at the tech summit.
Furthermore, an interesting topic of discussion was the taxation policy in the country. It is always assumed that the rich get more tax benefits. However, Murthy shared, ”In a country like India, we the evangelists of capitalism, must accept the fact that we have to pay higher level of taxation because the government needs to provide amenities to poor people.”
“The only escape you have from poverty is a little bit of smartness, lot of hardwork and an enduring value system those are the only three things that will take you from where you are today to betterment,” he added