Mitesh Khapra, an associate professor at IIT Madras, has been included in TIME magazine’s prestigious 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI). This recognition highlights Khapra’s profound impact on reshaping AI’s role in India, particularly through his work in natural language processing and machine learning, with a special focus on empowering Indian languages.
Unlike many of the other influential figures on the list, such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman, who lead AI companies, Khapra’s primary contributions are academic. He is the co-founder of AI4Bharat, an initiative dedicated to developing open-source AI tools and datasets tailored to Indian languages, making AI accessible to a broader audience in the country.
AI4Bharat has become a critical resource for India’s growing voice technology sector. Nearly every Indian startup working on regional language voice tech relies on the datasets developed by Khapra and his team. While Western AI models perform well on major languages like Hindi and Bengali, they often struggle with India’s underrepresented languages. To address this, Khapra’s lab conducted a groundbreaking project, sending researchers to almost 500 of India’s 700 districts. They recorded thousands of hours of voices from people across diverse educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, encompassing all 22 of India’s official languages.
Khapra’s contributions have also supported the Indian government’s Bhashini mission, which seeks to provide digital services in local languages using AI. His datasets are even used by global tech firms to improve AI models for languages like Hindi and Marathi.
Reflecting on the evolution of AI research in India, Khapra shared, “Fifteen years ago, an average PhD student in India working on language technology would mostly focus on English-related problems. But now, with the availability of these datasets, I see a shift. Indian students are increasingly working on challenges specific to Indian languages.”
TIME’s 100 AI list is one of the most esteemed recognitions in the tech world, spotlighting researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers who are shaping the future of AI. Khapra’s inclusion in this list underscores his pivotal role in making AI more inclusive and impactful for millions of people in India and beyond.
Image Source: TIME | Image Credit: TIME
