India, Oct. 29 -- India needs to protect its data and intellectual property from being harvested by global tech firms offering "free" AI tools, said Abhishek Singh, CEO of India AI Mission and additional secretary in the electronics and IT ministry.

Speaking at a TiE event, Singh said that platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT, which would be available for free for Indian users, are collecting massive amounts of Indian user data to train their AI models.

"In this world, nothing is truly free. When a product is free, you are the product," he said, adding that India must ensure that domestic companies develop AI models to retain control over datasets and innovation.

Notably, starting November 4, OpenAI is planning to offer ChatGPT Go for free ...