Mitesh Khapra, an associate professor at IIT Madras, has been featured in TIME magazine’s prestigious 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI). Sharing recognition with global names like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Khapra has been honoured for his research in natural language processing and machine learning, particularly focused on Indian languages.
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Unlike many others on the list who lead global AI companies, Khapra’s work is largely academic. He co-founded AI4Bharat, an initiative dedicated to developing open-source tools and datasets to make AI accessible in Indian languages. According to TIME, nearly every Indian startup working on voice technology for regional languages depends on datasets developed by Khapra and his team.
AI4Bharat and the Bhashini mission
Khapra’s research lab, AI4Bharat, spearheaded a project that collected thousands of hours of voice recordings from nearly 500 districts across India, covering speakers from diverse educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. The project captured all 22 of India’s official languages, addressing the gap where Western AI models perform poorly on underrepresented languages.
His contributions have been crucial to the Indian government’s Bhashini mission, which seeks to provide digital services in local languages through AI. Even global technology companies are making use of AI4Bharat’s open-source datasets to improve their models for languages such as Hindi and Marathi.
“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,” Khapra was quoted by TIME as saying.
The TIME 100 AI list is regarded as one of the most respected recognitions in the tech world, highlighting researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers who are shaping the global future of artificial intelligence.
