Mukund Jha at Moneycontrol Conclave: AI Won't Slow Down

The AI race will not slow down, Emergent founder Mukund Jha said at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2026. Commercial pressure on AI labs makes a pause unlikely, he argued, even as the rapid improvement in model capabilities raises serious security concerns.

Jha spoke on September 26. Founders of India's two newest AI unicorns said the focus should be on building safeguards and capabilities to handle the risks, rather than pausing.

Commercial pressure makes a slowdown unlikely

Jha said the commercial pressure on AI labs makes a deliberate slowdown difficult.

"I don't think slowing down is going to happen because I think the commercial pressure is a lot on the labs," he said.

The speed of development makes it more important, not less, for companies and governments to strengthen model evaluations, security, and other safeguards before deploying increasingly capable systems, he said.

Faster models raise the security stakes

"The pace of AI is definitely going really fast right now," Jha said, pointing to newer models that can exploit vulnerabilities which take companies months to fix.

Vulnerabilities could increase as models get smarter, Jha said, with digital payments and other critical digital infrastructure creating potential areas of exposure for India.

India should accelerate, not slow to match the frontier

Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar took the argument further, saying India should accelerate its AI push rather than try to match the pace of countries developing frontier models by slowing down.

"At least from the India vantage point, we should accelerate," Kumar said. AI could help India move faster in areas where the country still has gaps, including education, healthcare, and access to intelligence at population scale, he said.

Kumar cited Sarvam's work with the government to reach three crore farmers at low cost, and the digitisation of around four crore LIC forms using a custom AI model, as examples of where India could apply AI at scale. The opportunity is not limited to building frontier models, he added. The country also needs the capital, talent, and capabilities to defend itself as AI becomes more powerful.

Ownership and control move to the center

Both founders pointed to security as a growing concern as AI capabilities improve. Kumar said India needs to think about its own capabilities, particularly for systems that are critical to national interests.

"The challenge is every company is asking now: Do I own my own AI? Is my data safe?" Kumar said, arguing that the question of AI control extends beyond governments to individual companies.

He cautioned against viewing AI sovereignty only through a nationalistic lens. For businesses, he said, it increasingly comes down to whether they control their costs, data, and ability to build on top of AI systems.