Overview
With the exception of India, nearly all developed nations have their own frontier models. The AI Impact Summit 2026 was held by us. We are talented. The infrastructure is here. However, we lack the will. India's standing in the global South could be made or broken by a Frontier model.
We are witnessing an upsurge in the usage of AI in combat to gain the upper hand as several conflicts flare throughout the planet. This also applies to technological developments. Therefore, we cannot wait for other nations to join us in the AI race. It is our responsibility to lead the world in AI. Let's examine the current state of the AI cold war and how it may influence the upcoming ten years.
A Frontier Model: What Is It?
Frontier models are all-purpose models designed for daily use. Text, photos, movies, and code are just a few of the various sources they can process. They stand for the companies' state-of-the-art innovation. The leading AI firms release their own Frontier Models to compete with one another. Every each release pushes the boundaries of what AI is capable of.
They are taught using billions of parameters and massive datasets. Ensuring the public has access to the most effective models is the aim. A model's potential for improvement increases with the number of users it has. These models' source code is typically hidden behind closed doors. It is only accessible by employees of the particular company.
Models that have been refined are distinct. These start with frontier models and expand upon them. To make sure it fulfils their needs, they train it on their own unique dataset. Anyone can read and comprehend open-source models. The public can access the source code for these models. It is accessible, editable, and playable by everybody. Of course, there are technical experts and moderators who make sure that no evil actors use it. However, open-source methods assist in making the idea available to the general public for free.
What is the current status of India?
The discussion of the frontier model does not completely exclude India. Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola founded Krutrim, which went on to become India's first AI unicorn. For Indian languages, Sarvam AI is developing multilingual models. AI infrastructure would receive ₹10,000 crore from the government's IndiaAI Mission. However, none of these are currently considered actual frontier models. They are domain-specific, fine-tuned, or smaller-scale. There is still a huge difference between what China's DeepSeek, OpenAI, and Google have developed and what India has. On paper, India aspires to the Frontier Model. It hasn't been put into practice yet.
Reason 1: The Sovereignty Question
Your data travels through American servers when you use GPT-4 or Gemini, and it is governed by American law and policy. The employment of these models by a government agency, a defence contractor, or a hospital makes that reliance vulnerable. With a sovereign frontier model, India is in charge of its own AI infrastructure, which has its own data, access, and security measures. Relying on foreign frontier models is a strategic risk in a time of trade disputes, sanctions, and export limits on AI. There is more to India's Frontier Model than merely technology. This is a concern of national security.
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