Information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw showered appreciation on China-based company, DeepSeek for transforming the sector using low-cost AI assistant, complementing its economic approach coinciding with his government's efforts to create a regional AI model.

Last year, India brought in the IndiaAI mission, a $1.25 billion investment in AI that promises support for AI startups, including the construction of its own AI infrastructure.

However, DeepSeek's work which took less than two months and cost less than $6 million to create an AI model using Nvidia's less sophisticated H800 chips has caused a great stir in the artificial intelligence spending globally.

"Some people question the amount of investments the government has committed in (IndiaAI mission). You have seen what DeepSeek has done? $5.5 million and a very very powerful model. Because, the use of brain," Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Its software recently overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT in the Apple software Store in terms of downloads, and the price and functionality of its products disproved industry assumptions that China was years behind its American competitors in the AI race.

Vaishnaw's statement to be viewed as a counter statement by Sam Altman of OpenAI on a trip to India last year, in which he questioned if an Indian team could create a significant model in the OpenAI sector on a $10 million budget.

"The way this works is we're going to tell you it's totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models. You shouldn't try. And it's your job to like try anyway. And I believe both of those things," he said, comments which are now in focus again on online platforms such as X after DeepSeek's success.

Altman is scheduled to return to India on February 5th, at a time when his business is embroiled in a legal dispute with Indian digital news and book publishers over copyright violations.