OpenAI unveiled the new ChatGPT 4o earlier this month which encapsulated everyone’s attention and drew comparisons with the ability of AI in the movie Her. Sam Altman, the guy heading OpenAI, pointed out publicly that ChatGPT 4o comes via the Omni team and he specifically mentioned the name of an Indian techie whiz, Prafulla Dhariwal, who Altman says, made the new version of ChatGPT happen.
Indian-origin techies have become a core part of the tech industry over the years, with the likes Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella showing the talent pool and the brilliance that helped them lead big tech giants.
GPT-4o would not have happened without the vision, talent, conviction, and determination of @prafdhar over a long period of time. that (along with the work of many others) led to what i hope will turn out to be a revolution in how we use computers. https://t.co/f3TdQT03b0
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 15, 2024
PRAFULLA DHARIWAL – THE MAN WHO MADE CHATGPT 4O HAPPEN
Dhariwal comes from the city of Pune, and was able to spearhead OpenAI’s Omni team after achieving all the credentials in his academic background. He scored 295 marks out of 300 after taking the PCM group in class XII which is never easy. He scored 190 marks in the Maharashtra Technical Common Entrance Test (MT-CET) and further went on to get 330 out of a possible 360 marks in the Joint Entrance Exam or JEE-Mains.
His achievements didn’t stop there. Back in 2009, the Indian government awarded him the winner of the National Talent Search Scholarship and in the same period also won the gold models at the International Astronomy Olympiad in China.
STEPPING STONE INTO THE WORLD OF AI
But Dhariwal’s break was yet to come and for that he decided to pursue the Bachelor’s in Computer Science (with Maths) course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or as everyone calls it, MIT. He graduated in 2017 with a GPA score of 5.0 and even before he achieved that, OpenAI made him a research intern in May 2016.