Sabyasachi Das

Doting dad. High-maintenance hubby. Fitness. Food. Friends. Family. Fun. Frolic. Too many things, too little time.

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Hilarious!

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.

$30 per seat per month.

$1.4 million annually.

I called it "digital transformation."

The board loved that phrase.

They approved it in eleven minutes.

No one asked what it would actually do.

Including me.

I told everyone it would "10x productivity."

That's not a real number.

But it sounds like one.

HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.

I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."

They stopped asking.

Three months later I checked the usage reports.

47 people had opened it.

12 had used it more than once.

One of them was me.

I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds.

It took 45 seconds.

Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations.

But I called it a "pilot success."

Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail.

The CFO asked about ROI.

I showed him a graph.

The graph went up and to the right.

It measured "AI enablement."

I made that metric up.

He nodded approvingly.

We're "AI-enabled" now.

I don't know what that means.

But it's in our investor deck.

A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT.

I said we needed "enterprise-grade security."

He asked what that meant.

I said "compliance."

He asked which compliance.

I said "all of them."

He looked skeptical.

I scheduled him for a "career development conversation."

He stopped asking questions.

Microsoft sent a case study team.

They wanted to feature us as a success story.

I told them we "saved 40,000 hours."

I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up.

They didn't verify it.

They never do.

Now we're on Microsoft's website.

"Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot."

The CEO shared it on LinkedIn.

He got 3,000 likes.

He's never used Copilot.

None of the executives have.

We have an exemption.

"Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction."

I wrote that policy.

The licenses renew next month.

I'm requesting an expansion.

5,000 more seats.

We haven't used the first 4,000.

But this time we'll "drive adoption."

Adoption means mandatory training.

Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.

But completion will be tracked.

Completion is a metric.

Metrics go in dashboards.

Dashboards go in board presentations.

Board presentations get me promoted.

I'll be SVP by Q3.

I still don't know what Copilot does.

But I know what it's for.

It's for showing we're "investing in AI."

Investment means spending.

Spending means commitment.

Commitment means we're serious about the future.

The future is whatever I say it is.

As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

The world cup win by our women felt personal.

https://t.co/vebLUJHfmX

#WomensWorldCup2025 #IndianCricket #IndiaIndia

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

So well explained. Loved it.

#deepseek

[GDP @ COMPUTEX @bookwormengr]

Writing this as an Indian who works on AI in leadership role for one the largest companies in the world (though strictly my personal opinion, but based on verifiable data).

You heard it first here:
—————————-
First some more shocks:
You heard DeepSeek.
Wait till you hear about Qwen (Alibaba), MiniMax, Kimi, DuoBao (ByteDance) all from China.
Within China, DeepSeek is not unique and their competition is close behind (not far behind).
IMHO, China has 10 labs comparable to OpenAI/Anthropic and another 50 tier 2 labs.
The world will discover them in coming weeks in awe and shock.

AI is not hard (I am not high)
————————————
Ignore Sam Altman.
Many teams that built foundation models are below 50 persons (e.g. Mixtral).
In AI, LLM science part is actually quite easy.
All these models are “Transformer Decoder only models”, an architecture that was invented in late 2017.
There are improvements since then (flash attention, ROPE, MOE, PPO/DPO/GRPO), but they are relatively minor, open source and easy to implement.

Since building foundation models is easy and Nvidia is there to help you (if not directly, then by sharing their software like “Megatron” that is assembly line to build AI models) there are so many foundation models built by Chinese labs as well as global labs.

It is machines that learn by themselves…if you give them data & compute. This is unlike writing operating system or database software. Also, everyone trains on same data: internet archives, books, github code for the first stage called “pre-training”.

What is part is hard then?
———————————-
It is the parallel & distributed computing to run AI training jobs across thousands of GPUs that is hard. DeepSeek did lot of innovation here to save on “flops” and network calls. They used an innovative architecture called Mixture of Experts and a new approach called GRPO. with verifiable rewards both of which are in open domain through 2024.

Also, there is lot of data curation needed particularly for “post training”
to teach model on proper style of answering (SFT/DPO) or to teach them learn to reason (GRPO with verifiable reward). STF/DPO is where “stealing” from existing models to save cost of manual labor may happen.

LLM building is nothing that Indian engineers living in India cannot pull off. Don’t worry about Indians who have left. There are plenty in the country as of today.

Then why India does not have foundation models?
———————
It is for the same reason India does not have Google or Facebook of its own.

You need to able to walk before you can run.

There is no protected market to practice your craft in early days. You will get replaced by American service providers as they are cheaper and better every single time. That is not the case with Chinese player. They have a protected market and leadership who treats this skillset as existential due to geopolitics.

So, even if Chinese models are not good in early days they will continue to get funding from their conglomerates as well as provincial governments. Darwinian competition ensures best rise to the top.

Recall DeepSeek took 2 years to get here without much revenue. They were funded by their parent. Also, most of their engineers are not PHDs.

There is nothing that engineers who built Ola/Swiggy/Flipkart cannot build. Remember these services are second to none when you compare them to their Bay Area counterparts. Also , don’t trivialize those services; there is brilliant engineering to make them work at the price points at which they work.

Indian DARPA with 3B USD in funding over 3 years
———————-
What we need is a mentality that treats this skillset as existential. We need a national fund that will fund such teams and the only expected output will be benchmark performance with benchmarks becoming harder every 6 months . No revenue needed to survive for first 3 years.

That money will be loose change for GOI and world’s richest men living in India.

@protosphinx @balajis @vikramchandra @naval

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Looking forward to the ELETS NBFC Summit in Mumbai on Nov 21, 2024.

https://t.co/FchwgQvg7e

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

@shubhrata_p Congratulations @shubhrata_p ... you are an inspiration to many. We are so proud of you.

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

@worshipvirat Agree. With the resources BCCI has they can do better if they turn their attention to this. They have the ability to execute. Just need to prioritize fan experience that eventually gets them the revenues. @BCCI

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Received a cheque today.
* Paper cheque after years
* Amount: Rs. 6.77 (yes, you read that right!)
* Through BlueDart (courier cost Rs. 40)
* Note: Cost of printing cheque & letter extra.

So much for going green.
Atleast, I hope this created some jobs!

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

A little over 30 years ago, I began my career here. Today, I had the chance to stop by and click this pic. Tulsiani Chambers will always be special.

Grateful beyond words for everyone and everything that has shaped this incredible journey.

#gratitude
#nostalgia

[IANS @ians_india]

Delhi: "Access of healthcare is a very important problem for all of us to solve and in a country like India where investing in infrastructure is going to be very very tough. Using technology and AI is the only way for us to provide great quality healthcare to billion people...Along with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) we are excited to launch a report that talks about how digital healthcare is revolutionizing health and wellness...," says Satish Kannan, Co-founder, CEO, MediBuddy

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

This award is truly special. So proud of the team for relentlessly executing on our plans as we endeavor to make high quality healthcare accessible to a billion people.

https://t.co/x3suCB0mlw

[XIMB Alumni @XIMBAlumni]

The XIM Alumni Committee extends its heartfelt gratitude to the batch of '98 for gracing the Grand Homecoming 2023-24 with their presence.
The XIM Alumni Committee looks forward to meeting every one of you again soon.

#BatchOf1998
#GHC2023
#XIMB
#XIMBAlumni
#XIMUniversity

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Jan 3rd can't come soon enough! #ghc1998 #ximb @

[XIMB Alumni @XIMBAlumni]

XIM Alumni Committee invites the Grand Homecoming Batch of 1998 with open arms to take you down memory lane with one of the most anticipated events of the year.

Stay tuned for more details!

#Batchof1998
#GHC2023
#RelivingMemories
#Nostalgia
#XIMBAlumni
#XIMUniversity

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Can't wait to be back on our hallowed campus once more!

#GHC2023 #ClassOf1998 #25thYearReunion #ximb

[XIMB Alumni @XIMBAlumni]

"In the resonance of shared smiles and echoed laughter, the heartbeat of XIMB pulsates with nostalgic camaraderie"
The XIM Alumni Committee is back with the Grand Homecoming 2023, inviting the Batch of 1998.
Stay Tuned!

#GHC2023
#ComingSoon
#Batch1998
#XIMB
#XIMBAlumni

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Watching the pendulum swing between remote work & return to office has been as fascinating as learning new buzz words like #CoffeeBadging, after catchphrases like #QuietQuitting, #BareMinimumMonday, #CyberLoafing and I am sure a few more. :)

https://t.co/J18uEAIBP0

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

So proud of @shubhrata_p for normalizing mental illness, despite her own battles.

#ItIsOkToNotBeOk
#WorldMentalHealthDay
#WorldMentalHealthDay2023

[Bhubaneswar Buzz @BBSRBuzz]

#bhubaneswarbuzz pic by #Repost @offmyownbat
・・・
Recently, one of my friends asked me for suggestions for the trip he is planning with his family to Odisha. In the course of the conversation, I kept showing him my Instagram posts that touched upon various aspects of his tr…

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

The greatest ever Indian track & field athlete: @Neeraj_chopra1

[World Athletics @WorldAthletics]

The Olympic champion becomes the javelin throw world champion ☄️

🇮🇳's @Neeraj_chopra1 throws 88.17m to upgrade last year's silver medal into glittering gold in Budapest 👏

#WorldAthleticsChamps

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

India on the Moon. And as @shubhrata_p says, we are over the moon!

Hats off to the amazing team @isro.

Proud Indian.

#Chandrayaan3
#Chandrayaan3Landing

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

Given the hype around Digital Employee Experience (DEX), especially in the Hybrid World that we live in today, thought I would pen down my thoughts on the same. https://t.co/uh6wOmaPru

#dex #futureofwork #hybridwork #remotework #digitalemployeeexperience #employeeengagement

[Sabyasachi Das @offmyownbat]

#coaching #sensitive

(Source: LinkedIn)