OpenAI hires first India-based official Pragya Misra, slated to start later this month: report

Pragya Misra previously worked at Truecaller AB and Meta, per the Bloomberg report. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

OpenAI has hired Pragya Misra, 39, its first official in India, in order to handle government relations, reported Bloomberg on Friday, citing an anonymous source.

OpenAI has not yet issued an official statement confirming Ms. Misra’s appointment, but Bloomberg reported that she would serve as the government relations head and is slated to begin her duties towards the end of April.

Ms. Misra previously worked at Truecaller AB and Meta, per the report.

An intermediary between U.S.-based AI companies and the Indian administration is key as the country has started voting in its 2024 general elections.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

The AI startup backed by Microsoft interacted with Indian tech policy and civil society representatives on February 12 as experts and activists flagged fears of generative AI being used to hurt India’s elections.

OpenAI acknowledged these fears and said safeguards have been put in place, even as it upgrades its large language model ChatGPT and text-to-image generator DALL-E.

This year, OpenAI also introduced its text-to-video generator Sora as well as its text-to-audio cloning model Voice Engine. However, both were released on a limited basis for testing and are not publicly available yet.

OpenAI chief Sam Altman also said that he spoke about AI regulation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023.

Earlier this year, the Indian government lambasted Google and accused it of violating laws after its chatbot Gemini responded to a question about Modi and fascism.