16-year-old Indian kids are a blend of teenage rebels, multitasking maestros and sneaking-out experts. This is that age where they are seen trying their hands on multiple things – arts, commerce, science, sports, content creation, standup comedy, etc. and not really ‘excelling’ in any of it. However, Pranjali Awasthi is different. She received her life’s calling at a very young age. Here is her story.
16-year-old Pranjali Awasthi has an Artificial Intelligence startup named Delv.AI. She launched her company in January 2022 and has already secured funding of $450,000 (Rs 3.7 crore). She runs her company along with 10 other dedicated professionals, reports Business Today.
Pranjali’s tryst with technology started at a very young age. She was inspired by her father, who is an engineer, as he promoted the teaching of computer science in schools. She started learning how to code when she was 7. New opportunities began unfolding in front of her eyes when her family moved to Florida, US, when she was 11. She had access to computer science classes and competitive math programs. At only 13 years of age, she bagged an internship at the research labs of Florida International University.
It was during this internship that she became obsessed with machine-learning projects. It was also during this time that OpenAI released ChatGPT-3 beta. Pranjali came up with the idea of Delv.AI during this time and her mission was to “leverage machine learning to enhance data extraction processes and dismantle data silos”.
One of Pranjali’s significant milestones was joining an AI startup accelerator in Miami, even though she had to put her studies on hold. She went on to launch Delv.AI on Product Hunt, a platform that facilitates the sharing of software for free. It was a success.
With Delv.AI, Pranjali wants to help researchers efficiently access specific information from the jungle that is the online world. Even though her parents hold education in high regard, she wants to put her college-going ambitions aside and focus on her company for the time being.
It is truly inspiring to see how passionate the girl is at such a young age!