At Meta, Indians account for a large fraction of the daily active users, of IG, FB & WhatsApp. But revenue from Indian users is a similarly in single digits.. so Indians get served less relevant ads, fewer computing resources get spent on serving them. Financial incentives drive investments, and the gap is so big that there’s no way that Meta employees can Justify improving the Indian experience dramatically over improving the experience of Americans or Europeans even a little bit.
Thus ads get repeated rather than refreshed, Whatsapp university phenomenon gets worse.
And since OpenAI is on a path very similar to Meta’s, decisioning framework, ChatGPT training is experiencing the same inequity.
This framing should be a clarion call for the Indian subcontinent to invest in deeper tech capability.
A brilliantly articulated piece on the almost dystopian reality of the AI boom in South Asia, something that often keeps me up at night. A reminder to be less celebratory and more skeptical.
We’re happily dancing in shoes that do not belong to us.
Really great analysis, thanks for putting it together!
Dependencies are always risky but building whole products based on other companies expertise leaves no leverage at all for oneself.
At Meta, Indians account for a large fraction of the daily active users, of IG, FB & WhatsApp. But revenue from Indian users is a similarly in single digits.. so Indians get served less relevant ads, fewer computing resources get spent on serving them. Financial incentives drive investments, and the gap is so big that there’s no way that Meta employees can Justify improving the Indian experience dramatically over improving the experience of Americans or Europeans even a little bit.
Thus ads get repeated rather than refreshed, Whatsapp university phenomenon gets worse.
And since OpenAI is on a path very similar to Meta’s, decisioning framework, ChatGPT training is experiencing the same inequity.
This framing should be a clarion call for the Indian subcontinent to invest in deeper tech capability.
A brilliantly articulated piece on the almost dystopian reality of the AI boom in South Asia, something that often keeps me up at night. A reminder to be less celebratory and more skeptical.
We’re happily dancing in shoes that do not belong to us.
loved the article and i truly agree with the sentiment shared.
Interesting read!