OpenAI CEO Sam Altman critiques DeepSeek’s cost claims, says, ‘Some zeros missing!’

OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman has hailed India as a significant market for artificial intelligence (AI), revealing that the number of Indian users of OpenAI’s services has tripled in the past year. Altman, who is currently in India, discussed the future of AI in the country, OpenAI’s expansion plans, and the role of artificial general intelligence during an exclusive conversation withHindustan Times Editor-in-Chief R Sukumar.

Altman also addressed the recent emergence of the Chinese AI model Deep Seek, which made headlines for allegedly being developed at a significantly lower cost. Dismissing such claims, Altman remarked, “I was extremely sceptical of the cost number. It was like, there are some zeros missing. But, yeah, it’s a good model, and we’ll need to make better models, which we will do.”

When questioned about OpenAI’s infrastructure expansion and whether India would play a role in the company’s future projects, Altman remained tight-lipped but hinted at upcoming developments. “We don’t have anything to announce today, but we are hard at work, and we hope to have something exciting to share soon,” he said.

Reflecting on the Indian government’s AI initiatives, Altman revisited his earlier remarks, which had sparked debate over whether India should develop its own frontier AI models. He clarified that his comments were made in a different context when the costs associated with developing such models were significantly higher. “That was a different time when frontier models were super expensive to do. And you know, now, I think the world is in a very different paradigm. I think you can do them at way lower costs and maybe do incredible work,” he explained.

He praised India’s growing AI ecosystem, acknowledging its rapid innovation and global significance. “India is an incredible market for AI in general, for us too. It’s our second biggest market after the US. Users here have tripled in the last year. The innovation that’s happening, what people are building here, it’s really incredible. We’re excited to do much, much more here, and I think the Indian AI programme is a great plan. And India will build great models,” Altman asserted.