 "Quicksplained: OpenAI makes first hire in India: Who is Pragya Misra?")
OpenAI has recruited its first employee in India. The ChatGPT developer has reportedly roped in Pragya Misra as head of government relations.
According to a Bloomberg report, “The hiring highlights the generative-AI company’s efforts to push for favourable rules as governments around the world consider how to regulate the rapidly developing technology.”
The report also mentioned that the Microsoft-backed company has not made the appointment public yet.
Who is Pragya Misra? Let’s take a look.
OpenAI hires Pragya Misra
1. Pragya Misra, 39, served as the Director of Public Affairs for contact verification company Truecaller since July 2021. Her role required her to work closely with government ministries, investors, key stakeholders, and media partners, reported IANS. Before Truecaller, she was employed by Meta Platforms for three years. It was here that Misra led WhatsApp’s campaign against misinformation in 2018. Notably, she was WhatsApp’s first employee in India, according to the news agency.
2. Misra, who earned her MBA (master of business administration) from International Management Institute in 2012, has also worked with Ernst & Young and the Royal Danish Embassy in New Delhi, according to her LinkedIn profile.
3. She graduated in commerce from the University of Delhi. Misra’s academic journey also includes studying at London School of Economics and Political Science where she pursued a Diploma in Bargaining and Negotiations.
4. Misra is also a podcaster who hosts Pragyaan Podcast. She invites guests and touches upon an array of topics including meditation and consciousness. According to her Instagram bio, Misra is a Heartfulness Meditation Trainer. She is also a golfer who has reportedly represented India at several international tournaments between 1998 and 2007.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts5. Misra is set to embark on a new chapter of her career with OpenAI towards the end of April, as per the Bloomberg report. She will lead public policy affairs and partnerships in India at the generative-AI company.
6. OpenAI is eyeing India’s tech market. Its ChatGPT has the second-largest users in India, after the United States. As Bloomberg noted, India, the most populous nation in the world, offers a growth opportunity for international technology companies. However, with lawmakers and regulators trying to ensure the well-being of local firms in the process, the South Asian country has “proven a difficult one to navigate”.
7. OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, said at the ET Now Global Business Summit in February that the ChatGPT maker will continue to invest in India’s developer community and revealed the company’s plans to organise developer summits in the country this year. “India has the key ingredients of being one of the world’s leaders in AI. It has the largest developer community in the world, with some of the most impressive talent in the field, a track record of developing extraordinary technology businesses and a relentless focus on competing on the world stage,” he said at the summit.
8. As OpenAI tries to tap the Indian market, it is facing stiff competition. Alphabet’s Google is developing an artificial intelligence (AI) model to cater specifically to the Indian audience. As per Bloomberg, the product would support over 100 local languages across speech and text in a bid to reach people beyond India’s urban English-speaking demographic.
9. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sam Altman, who visited India last year, had emphasised on the need for governments to back AI research to boost government services like healthcare. “The main thing that I think is important is figuring out how to integrate these technologies into other services. That is an area that I think governments are behind on, and don’t have the answers yet,” he said at the time, as per Bloomberg.
With inputs from agencies
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