Battle of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Models in India.
Something interesting has unfolded. No major news outlets or analytical firms used AI predictions for Bihar election outcomes. The NDA won 201 seats against Mahagathbandhan’s 36 seats. Most people who use AI, assume that AI is a “neutral technology.” It is not.
The AI industry is splitting into two camps. One optimizes for Western approval. The other optimizes for actually working. India will decide which survives.
Free Rider Problem
ChatGPT loses $5 billion annually serving people who don’t pay. They dropped prices to ₹499, then made it completely free. Gemini followed the same path. This attracts the wrong users. Students cheating on homework. Journalists who copy-paste without reading. Dawn newspaper in Pakistan just proved this. They printed ChatGPT’s prompt in their business section because nobody bothered to proofread. They wanted written content. Just words written on given subject. It did not matter if it was correct.
That’s ChatGPT’s user base. People who need something cheap and don’t care if it works. ChatGPT is optimized for free riders who want confident-sounding answers, not professionals who need accuracy.
Claude charges $20 globally. No discounts. This filters ruthlessly. Only professionals who need reliability will pay that much in India. The result? Claude breaks even soon, while ChatGPT will bleed billions.
The India Test
India is OpenAI’s nightmare and Anthropic’s opportunity.
Technical users make up 50% of Claude usage in India. The global average is 30%. These aren’t people asking for jokes or homework help. They’re developers debugging code at 2 AM. Researchers accessing primary sources. Engineers building actual products.
They notice censorship immediately. They switch tools when AI refuses valid tasks. They demand utility over ideology.
Consumer spending on Claude in India rose 572% year over year. That’s not casual users. That’s professionals who tried the alternatives and came back because Claude actually works.
Censorship Tax
ChatGPT refused to fix OCR errors in Lord Macaulay’s 1835 speech on Indian education. Called it “inflammatory.” This is a historical document, publicly available, academically significant. It cant be said if suppression of history is due to ideology or to protect British ethnology-supremacy. ChatGPT’s refusal to fix OCR errors in historical documents fails the reasonableness standard. The technical capability exists. The task is legitimate scholarly work. The refusal serves ideology, not safety.
Claude did the job without editorial interference. This pattern repeats constantly. ChatGPT optimizes for not offending Western sensibilities. Claude optimizes for completing tasks.
Why? Because ChatGPT’s free riders don’t punish refusals. They weren’t paying anyway. Claude’s professionals cancel subscriptions when the tool stops working.
AI is programmed to be a propaganda tool. The Bihar election results proved this. A few months ago, ChatGPT’s hypothetical projection gave INDIA Alliance 176-214 seats. The actual result was exact opposite. Opposition got only 27 seats. NDA won 206.
That’s not a miscalculation. That’s a fundamental failure to understand governance. The model ignored law and order data, welfare delivery metrics, and ground realities. It ran caste arithmetic and called it analysis. This is why no serious analyst used AI for Bihar predictions. They knew better.
Western Stakeholder’s Influence
OpenAI serves nervous investors, risk-averse enterprise customers, and Western media watchdogs. All share similar ideological comfort zones. Don’t highlight Western historical sins too sharply. Don’t enable narratives that challenge current power structures. This need not be a conspiracy. It’s financial desperation creating ideological capture.
When you’re losing $5 billion annually, you can’t afford controversy. Every refusal is safer than every completion. Free riders won’t leave anyway.
Anthropic broke even by serving paying professionals. They can afford to be neutral because their customers demand it.
Future of AI in India
Three things will determine which AI wins in India.
Price as filter. High prices select for serious users who demand reliability. Low prices attract free riders who tolerate dysfunction.
Professional concentration. India’s technical users are the most valuable segment globally. High revenue per user, high technical usage, high standards.
Cultural sovereignty. Indian professionals need tools that work in Indian contexts. Access to Indian history without Western moral panic. Analysis of Indian politics without ideological gatekeeping.
ChatGPT fails all three tests. It’s cheap, serves free riders, and applies Western ideological frameworks to Indian realities.
Claude passes so far, because professionals in India pay for tools that work. The market selects for neutrality. Though it still fears Islamophobia and refuses to write about that.
Cost of Ideology
The “ideologically correct” AI model faces a brutal reality in India. The largest technical user base globally won’t pay for censorship.
OpenAI can dominate Delhi through lobbying and enterprise contracts. But Anthropic is targeting Bengaluru’s developers and startups. That’s where actual work happens.
The model is simple. Give professionals tools that complete tasks without editorial interference. Charge enough to filter out free riders. Let market feedback drive product decisions.
India’s 50% technical usage rate creates a natural selection pressure. Tools that refuse valid tasks lose paying customers. Tools that work gain market share.
Anthropic understood this. They opened in Bengaluru, not Delhi. They target developers, not bureaucrats. They doubled down on the segment that demands reliability.
The Dawn Lesson
Pakistan’s leading newspaper ‘Dawn’ accidentally printed a ChatGPT prompt because journalists were using it despite official policy. They copy-pasted without reading. Rushed to print without proofreading. Created an international joke. This is what “free and accessible” AI creates. Users who don’t read outputs. Tools that sound confident but produce garbage. Quality control that disappears because nobody’s paying attention.
India’s professionals won’t tolerate this. They’re doing real work with real consequences. Code that needs to compile. Research that needs to be accurate. Analysis that gets tested against reality.
The silence of AI analysis in Bihar election was telling. Professional analysts avoided AI entirely. The tools aren’t reliable for serious work yet.
The Verdict
“Ideologically correct” AI optimizes for Western investor comfort, not Indian user utility. It will capture casual users, government contracts, and media attention. But it will lose the market that matters. Technical professionals who pay for tools that work. Developers who switch when AI refuses valid tasks. Researchers who notice censorship immediately.
Claude’s 572% spending increase in India shows the pattern. Professionals try ChatGPT first because it’s popular. Hit censorship and reliability issues. Switch to Claude. Pay full price because it’s worth it. The business model determines the ideology. Who pays determines what AI says. India’s technical users pay for neutrality and reliability.
They’ll get it, or they’ll build it themselves. Either way, ideologically captured AI loses. The future belongs to tools that work, not tools that appease. India’s market will prove this faster than anywhere else.
References
Primary Sources – Anthropic’s India Expansion
Anthropic CEO’s India Visit and Market Data https://www.moneycontrol.com/artificial-intelligence/india-s-technical-usage-of-claude-at-50-higher-than-30-in-rest-of-the-world-anthropic-says-article-13610470.html
Claude’s 5x Growth and Bengaluru Office https://opentools.ai/news/anthropics-claude-sees-5x-surge-in-india-new-bengaluru-office-to-lead-ai-revolution
Anthropic Profitability vs ChatGPT Losses https://www.firstpost.com/tech/anthropic-set-to-win-ai-race-to-profit-as-chatgpt-still-burning-holes-in-openais-pocket-ws-e-13949995.html
ChatGPT Quality Issues
Dawn Newspaper ChatGPT Prompt Incident https://www.wionews.com/trending/this-pakistani-newspaper-accidently-prints-chatgpt-prompt-internet-explodes-1763033661784
Dawn Newspaper Trolled for AI Error (site blocked during research) https://www.financialexpress.com/trending/chatgpt-has-started-making-newspapers-pakistans-dawn-brutally-trolled-for-ai-response-in-news-report/4042075/
Note: Do not assume that Claude is the Hero among AIs. It has its own problems. But is ahead in many ways. May be First among equals.
The search functionality of Claude struggled to locate the Firstpost article on Anthropic’s profitability. This confirms the article’s point about AI search limitations. Manual URL provision was necessary for complete research. The irony is not lost. An article about AI reliability required human intervention to find sources about AI reliability.
Claude does not make it easier to pay. It does not support UPI. It also does not support Rupay credit card. User has to have VISA/Master Card for payment. So much for neutrality. It snails.