India poised to lead the world in the age of AI, says GitHub CEO

livemint.com:

Mint on the sidelines of the GitHub Galaxy event in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Amid a global shift to AI, India boasts over 15.4 million developers on GitHub, compared to a little over 21 million in the US. Globally, there are more than 100 million developers.

Dohmke believes this large pool of developers will significantly benefit India, with more individuals leveraging AI to advance companies and society. "Last year was all about talking about AI. This year it is all about scaling and adopting AI…India will not only be a global leader but the leader in the age of AI," he said.

This was Dohmke's first visit to India as GitHub's CEO. While GitHub defines developers as "anyone with a GitHub account," India is currently estimated to have 4-5.5 millionsoftware developers out of about 30 million worldwide. Dohmke is confident that India's vast population and the increasing number of graduates in computer science and other engineering disciplines will ensure a sustained surge of developers.

"People of all ages will learn to code in their native languages (with generative AI)…There will be no catching up with India for a long time," he remarked. GitHub was founded in 2007 by Chris Wanstrath, P.J. Hyett, Tom Preston-Werner, and Scott Chacon.

Dohmke, who co-founded HockeyApp in 2011, joined Microsoft when it acquired his company three years later. Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018, and Dohmke became CEO of the code-sharing platform in November 2021, replacing Nat Freidman. GitHub, according to Dohmke, maintains "full independence" regarding its product, design, roadmap, branding, marketing, and events like the GitHub Galaxy.