From ChatGPT to Gemini, behind every AI there’s a Dhillon, Parmar or Bali: Viral post on Indians powering the AI sparks debate

A social media post by an Indian American has sparked debate on the significant contributions Indian-origin researchers have made to the global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. In a post shared on X, the social media user highlighted that some of the most influential breakthroughs powering today’s leading AI systems, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, were co-invented or advanced by Indian-origin scientists.

The Indian contribution to AI’s foundations

The post listed several key names:

• Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar, co-inventors of the Transformer architecture that underpins most large language models (LLMs).
• Soumith Chintala, creator of the PyTorch framework, widely used for training AI systems.
• Anima Anandkumar and Inderjit Dhillon, who advanced work in scaling deep learning.
• Kalika Bali and Pushpak Bhattacharyya, pioneers in multilingual natural language processing (NLP).

“These are not peripheral roles,” the post stated. “Indian-origin researchers are the architects of the revolution.”

The question of recognition

One social media user responded by asking why, if Indians have been so foundational to AI, the global narrative still focuses on Western companies and figureheads. The user questioned whether the imbalance was due to media visibility, branding, or deeper structural factors in how technological progress is attributed.

The funding and location factor

The original poster replied that while many of these researchers were of Indian origin, their work was carried out in the United States and funded by American institutions. This, they argued, explains why the spotlight tends to remain on Western ecosystems. “Their work was done in America, with American funding. While India focused on caste census,” the response read.

A broader reflection

The exchange has drawn attention to a larger issue: India’s role in global technology. While Indian-origin scientists are shaping some of the most transformative technologies abroad, recognition often goes to the countries and institutions where the research is conducted.

For India, the discussion revives questions on how domestic priorities, investment in research, and public perception influence its place in the global innovation landscape.