India Needs Strong AI Defence Capabilities Amid Rising Risks, Says Sarvam Co-founder Pratyush Kumar

India must develop domestic defensive capabilities around artificial intelligence as increasingly powerful AI systems become accessible to potentially rogue actors, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar said at a media conclave on Saturday.

“The immediate consequence of AI is usage of it by rogue players. This is a weapon system now,” Kumar said.

Kumar said India should build its own capabilities to address vulnerabilities arising from rapidly advancing AI technology while continuing to expand its use.

“We need a defence layer. We absolutely need to be thinking about our own capabilities,” he said.

“From the India vantage point, we should accelerate the pace of AI,” he added.

Kumar, who appeared alongside Emergent founder Mukund Jha, said the growing risks associated with AI should not lead India to slow technological development. However, he stressed that national security considerations and cybersecurity would need greater attention.

“From a national interests perspective, we need to think of vulnerability. It can go the other way if not regulated,” he said.

“Whether it is government, startups, everybody needs to take cybersecurity seriously,” Kumar said.

He also highlighted the difficulty of managing the rapid evolution of AI systems. “Pacing the AI has multiple layers,” Kumar said. “Technologically, it is crazy with models deciding amongst themselves.”

Govt builds AI governance framework

Kumar's comments come as the Centre develops an AI safety and governance framework alongside the IndiaAI Mission.

The government's 2026 AI Governance Guidelines proposed mechanisms including an AI Governance Group, a Technology and Policy Expert Committee and an AI Safety Institute.

The Safe and Trusted AI pillar of the mission focuses on areas including machine unlearning, bias mitigation, privacy-preserving technologies, explainability and risk assessment.

Sarvam was selected under the IndiaAI Mission in April 2025 to develop a sovereign large language model ecosystem focused on Indian use cases. The company has also identified cybersecurity as an area for further model development.

Kumar's remarks underline the parallel need to expand India's AI capabilities while building safeguards against emerging cybersecurity and national security risks.