Podcast with Nirav Bakshi, General Counsel, Blockchain Founders Fund (Part-1)

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Welcome dear listeners to another exciting episode of LexDiscuss.

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I am your host Avi and today we have a guest who is not just a legal rockstar but also

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a blockchain enthusiast.

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So buckle up because today we are diving into the world of smart contracts, crypto and maybe

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turning legal babble into real gold.

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Our guest today is none other than Nirav Bakshi, the General Counsel at Blockchain Founders

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Fund.

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So dear listeners, get ready to be entertained, enlightened and possibly even inspired as

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we unravel the mysteries of law, venture capital, blockchain and whatever else Nirav decides

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to sprinkle his magic on today.

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Nirav, thanks a lot for joining the podcast.

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For our listeners who don't know anything about you, would you want to give them an

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introduction of yourself?

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No, sure, thanks.

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Thanks for having me, Avinash.

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I'm a lawyer by profession.

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I didn't start out like that.

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I started with economics and finance and then moved to law in the UK, worked at Stevenson

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Howard for a year in the merger acquisitions team and then came to India, did my law all

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over again, joined general merchant and partners in their BC and private equity team, was not

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that interested in that so moved to financial formation at Tri Legal and then I joined Bombay

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Law Chambers doing investment funds and ventured that private equity venture capital in M&A.

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And like about a year back, I moved in-house to Blockchain Founders Fund.

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I'm currently their General Counsel.

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It's been about a journey for about seven or eight years in the legal profession between

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in the UK and India.

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That's what is going great and you know, hope to help the team deploy more and more capital

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and create companies going forward.

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But yeah.

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Wow, great intro there, Nirav.

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Thanks a lot for that.

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And you know, you touched upon your educational experience and I wanted to go a little deeper

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in that.

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So how did it turn around?

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Because you have a little unique experience there.

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So how things spanned there?

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The original plan was, I would say like, you know, very typically from, I don't want to

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say typical Indian family of sort, but like the thing is that either you're going into

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like engineering, medicine, finance, and then you want to become an investment banker

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or a venture capitalist or private equity investor, right?

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So the idea was to do like a BSc in economic finance, continue that with an MBA and then

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go into like PVC sort of space or investment banking space.

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But I did a couple of internships and I just didn't like it.

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I didn't like the space, didn't like the culture, didn't like how things were there without,

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you know, saying too much and naming too many people.

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So I decided to do something else.

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My dad comes from a law background.

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So that was something that sort of gravitated me towards law and I was like, why not give

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it a shot at least.

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So I got into it and I really liked the aspect of understanding interpretation and, you know,

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sort of giving guidance to people.

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And that's how it started.

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But I was very clear from the start that litigation is not something that, you know, I'm cut out

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for at all.

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And therefore I was very clear that I wanted to do corporate from the start and then stuck

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to that.

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In fact, like in between both, I've actually like, you know, I had a very interesting sort

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of thing where I did like a diploma in filmmaking as well just as a break.

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That was nothing serious.

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But yeah, like it was a good sort of break from, I would say, reading and numbers to

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be honest.

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I can imagine.

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But you never know.

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One of my good friends who actually graduated from a national law school, he is actually now

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a film filmmaker.

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So trust me, anything can happen.

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So yeah, thanks a lot for giving that context.

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So I'll start with a very easy question.

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What is the biggest legal complexity while working in a blockchain based company?

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We're not, per se, a blockchain based company, right?

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We're practically still a venture capital fund.

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So we still operate pretty much like that.

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In that sense, we don't have too much blockchain at our end, but like, I will be interact with

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companies and like I said, the biggest challenge we see our companies facing is on structuring,

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right?

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Because the moment you say blockchain, there is obviously an angle of some sort of tokens

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or coins or something like that.

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And in that sense, you have to be very careful in terms of where you incorporate, how to

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incorporate, are things faceable back to you, are you in the US, if you're in the US and

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how do you insulate yourself and those kind of things.

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So new complexities come more on the structuring side and that usually comes because of the

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fact that there's so many tax issues attached to it.

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From my role, fortunately, I'm not involved in that, because I wouldn't want to be because

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I think it's a little above my pay grade at this point, you know, like, yes, we do advise

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companies on and off on what to do, but we don't really put our hands too much into it.

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But other than that, if it's, you know, like a service provider on a blockchain, there's

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not much regulatory challenges there.

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It's pretty typical of what you'd expect of a startup in any part of the world.

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What you understand when you're on my role is where actually there is ease of doing business

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and where there actually isn't ease of doing business.

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And that becomes very critical in terms of what I advise, fund when they're making their

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investments because that directly impacts exits or where the company that they want

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to incorporate or are setting up a sub if they should do it or not do it.

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Wow.

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Can you help me understand like what is your typical day to day looks like?

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So my typical day to day would be, it would involve, you know, either drafting or reviewing

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investment documents, which either we're sending out or we receive from our portfolio companies,

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you know, mapping them out with term sheets or commercial top that have been agreed by

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the investment team.

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That takes up, I would think, most of my day, also obviously that includes, you know, certain

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calls that I have to do with the portfolio companies or prospective portfolio companies

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negotiating transactions or negotiating deals because sometimes they're not comfortable

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with certain language or certain rights, give them some comfort around it.

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The fund also has a venture program of sorts attached to it as, you know, like an accelerator

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of sorts where we help our companies in navigating their legal issues.

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So there could be calls that happen with the portfolio company founders where they have

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which I help them out with either editing, drafting, negotiating, et cetera.

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Small part of my role because of my background also is in finance where I look at, you know,

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the NAB of the capital deployed, how much is pending, how much we have, how much runway

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we have and the next capital costs we need, things like that.

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So that's typically how my day pans out and, you know, like obviously I have to sit in

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on a couple of investment committee meetings as well.

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So providing inputs that where there are legal and compliance or risks in the investments

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as well that while everything else may be good, are we tripping up any other wire

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or is there any wire that might need to be tripped up in the future that could hamper

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our position in the company.

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So that's typically how my day looks like.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, you don't take part in deciding whether the money should be invested

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or not by the fund?

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No, no.

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The only place where that decision comes in into my court is if I see a legal risk which

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we're not able to cover for through documentation.

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Like if there is a possibility through diligence, we find like an inter-founder dispute for

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example that could happen, right, because if either the founders left or have some sort of

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history there is something on record that we've seen through our diligence that's not

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okay.

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Then I would be like, you guys can still do it, but I don't think we should do it.

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Then I'm against it.

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Yeah.

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I'm against it.

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Yeah.

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Only in extreme cases where there's some kind of a legal risk involved, you know, you will

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be consulted in that regard, right?

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Is my understanding correct?

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Yeah.

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If there's a regulatory risk also, right, like for example, we're not able to sort

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of ascertain that the founders did not share, like a unique situation would be like a founder

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in India and set up a company abroad.

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Due to our ODI restrictions, we're not able to send money outside, then and the founder

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saying that, okay, I'm going to get these shares somehow, but I'm not going to be okay

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with it.

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Because we're coming in so early stage, right, if there's an exit tomorrow, the exit will

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happen in short term and it's unlikely to be able to fix that and in that case, no investor

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worth their salt is going to touch that company.

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Yeah, completely agree with that.

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So what's the position with blockchain founders fund right now?

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Are they investing solely in blockchain or they are diversifying in like, you know, Web3

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or now obviously with, you know, AI becoming the new buzzword?

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What's the investment scenario there?

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If you see our portfolio currently, it's a mix of Web2.5, Web3, blockchain, but I would say the team's

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core competitors remains in blockchain and crypto.

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So, you know, we're going a little bit more token heavy on our transactions at this point.

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We obviously like look at AI and Web3 as a whole as well, but considering we're moving

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a little bit later to our online, our focus is going to what our core competency is at

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this point.

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But yeah, we don't typically invest in very traditional SaaS based companies or those

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kind of things.

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Like there has to have some sort of at least a Web3 angle, if not a blockchain angle.

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Makes sense.

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So what kind of amazing startups you're looking at, especially in the legal tech sector?

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Do you have any interesting stories there?

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We're not looking at any legal tech sort of startups to invest, but like, you know, personally,

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I think I've read a few products when I was at my previous law firm.

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I think WhiteLegally will be one of them, and I think their product is quite phenomenal

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in that sense.

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So I think the pricing is a little high, but like I think for the product that they're

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offering, I think it's-

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That's the key with every good legal tech product, everybody that I interview.

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The product is good, but the pricing is really high, and I'll tell you as a tech co-founder,

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it's because of you guys.

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It's so hard, the deal cycle for lawyers is so long.

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It just doesn't make sense to sell you guys at a reasonable rate.

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No, no, I completely understand.

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Unfortunately, at my previous job, I was not in a position to take the call.

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I was just a senior associate.

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But I thought that like it's something that, you know, negotiate beyond a point or something

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out of my sort of domain.

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So I told my partner that looks, it's up to you at this point, I'm out of the discussion

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because I can't negotiate further.

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I think I just keep cheap after a point.

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There's no shame in that.

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So but no, I think my theory was one and I think there's one more.

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I can't recall the name at the top of my head.

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The integration into Microsoft Word was like phenomenal.

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If I do recall the name, like I'll let you know, but like that was one product.

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But in legal tech, beyond that, I've not really used much.

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I've tried using Chat GPT to be honest for a few things, but I think at least from an

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Indian law angle, it's less than that.

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I don't think the data is there yet.

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So Nirav, now let me ask you a little controversial question.

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So especially you guys are in the business of deciding who gets to live in the blockchain

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world or the Web3 world.

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Do you think something went wrong?

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A lot of people would argue that blockchain was a fad.

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What are your thoughts on that?

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The problem with how the market perceives blockchain is that because of the volatility

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of the open market, because there is a shadow market that is created with all these coins

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and tokens, and that becomes your indicator of where blockchain tech is going.

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Because of its high volatility, it will always feel like a fad.

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Typically when we study economics, we have these cycles that we are able to anticipate

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where the economy is going and when recession is going to hit and when it's going to come

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out and where the trough is and where the peaks are.

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The same thing is there with blockchain, and it's just that those troughs and peaks look

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like a heart rate monitor rather than a sine wave.

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And that's what results in people thinking it's a fad that it's going to crash, it's

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gone, and it's going to come back.

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But it always comes back.

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I mean, we're not that big of a fund that we're able to decide who lives and who dies,

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but being early backers of companies, I think we're able to catch the pulse of where things

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are right and where things are wrong.

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Because our focus is obviously on one, the core product, and second, on the founder themselves.

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In that sense, we're able to filter out a lot of the noise so as to speak that our

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people who are not in sync with blockchain day in, day out, catch on their news feed.

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Like you look at something like some other publications of blockchain that are around,

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now you'll see just good things being published, and maybe three months ago, there was just

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like all negative news being published.

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So it's just how it is, unfortunately.

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Still, people don't get an understanding, I would think, of blockchain, like how people

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got an understanding of the internet back in the day.

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I think we're always going to think that blockchain is a fad.

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But honestly speaking, like the use cases of blockchain are so much, I think it's far

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from being a fad.

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We're seeing situations now in which companies are coming up, which are actually allowing

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you to earn yield on your holdings, much like typical investment, which is just in the coin

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space, on the token space.

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You're having that crossover happen, and I think as more and more of these use cases

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come up, I think people will start to understand that this is more as an alternative or substitute

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rather than a replacement, I would think.

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Because I don't think traditional markets can ever really be replaced.

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Great insights there.

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So I have two follow-up questions.

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So my first follow-up question, because you have been really seeing a lot of startups

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in this space, according to you, what is the best use case of blockchain technology?

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My second follow-up question would be, what are your thoughts on stable coins, vis-a-vis

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the regular coins that we have?

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I think it would be a better of me to walk on and say what's the best use case is, but

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like, what is your personal opinion on that?

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Why all lawyers are so diplomatic?

239
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Let's make a controversy for once.

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That's a long topic, possibly, for another day.

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But I think my personal favorite use case of blockchain would be in two things, right?

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And it just depends on the problem.

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If I was thinking India as a whole as a problem, there are a lot of problems.

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But I would say one critical thing, and having dealt with it personally at my end, and my

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family at all, is real estate.

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If real estate ownership can be actually validly put on a blockchain and authenticated as a

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matter that blockchain does seek to authenticate, I think a lot of the problems that we have

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of going to the SAARP bar are trying to remove that, seeing if it's right, and updated, not

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updated, is it matching with the sale lead that you have, and those kinds of things.

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I want to put it as a technical term that we use, like tokenization of real world assets,

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effective, right, is a fabulous use case for blockchain.

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I completely agree with you, and I'll come back to the stable coin, your thoughts on

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stable coin.

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So my question to this would be, like, you know, on top of my head, I think two people

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are working on this.

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One is Mr. Rohas Nagpal from unsure, like, you know, you must have also done the cyber

257
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law diploma from ASCL, right?

258
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So no, I've not, actually, but no, I think I get it right.

259
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So like in my generation of lawyer, I don't know anyone who hasn't done a cyber law diploma

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from ASCL.

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At least the year that I graduated from law college, I think even a couple of years later

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that.

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Now we used to call it like COVID of law courses, so it really spiked in every corner of India.

264
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So yeah, so Mr. Rohas Nagpal, I think, has been working on this.

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And then there's another startup, which is called Lanted, I think, if I'm correct, they're

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trying to basically digitize the records.

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One of the use cases I have to mention is for like, you know, putting a planned record

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on blockchain.

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Some people would argue that just digitizing is more than enough.

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Why do you need a system that works on zero trust, basically?

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Why can't we just digitize the land records and call it a day?

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I think there's two things, right, like when I talk about tokenization of real world assets,

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I take actually the argument a little further that digitizing, because when you're digitizing

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assets, your transactions, when they happen, they're still happening in a very traditional

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where you have to go to the registry, get things signed, they'll execute scan and then

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upload and then it becomes sort of a digitized thing.

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Because unfortunately, in India, we're still not that comfortable with electronic signatures,

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even though we have a provision of an e-sign in our ID.

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That is one aspect.

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Now, when you take it a step forward on tokenization of that asset, your property transactions

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today are so difficult and so expensive in India because of diligence issues and everything

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that if all of this data is on a blockchain, right, which is then backed by a token of

283
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that particular real estate asset, which you can then go and sell, the number of property

284
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transactions that in the speed at which you're able to do it will increase multifold.

285
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Because there is now the zero trust system, you are absolutely sure that what you're buying

286
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is what you're getting because everything is happening in real time in the back.

287
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All the records are getting updated in real time.

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You literally got, let's say, the token, which evidences your ownership of that particular

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piece of land or the flat or whatever.

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Everything is happening in real time.

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You're able to transmit that money, hopefully one day blockchain tech or table coin that

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you can buy for that property and everything is done without any hassle because everything

293
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was there in that zero trust system.

294
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In a centralized system where there is somebody controlling a database, there is still room

295
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for one error and second room for tampering, which gets resolved in these kinds of zero

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trust.

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No, like I think, yes, step one is digitizing and after that these things can follow because

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I thought we were struggling with digitizing the record.

299
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So this is something I would think very far away from an economy like India, right?

300
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Thanks for sharing your insights there, right?

301
00:17:07,420 --> 00:17:10,740
Now coming to the second question, what are your thoughts on stable coins?

302
00:17:10,740 --> 00:17:11,740
What do you see there?

303
00:17:11,740 --> 00:17:16,140
See, stable coins, I think they're just another, I view them as just another form of currency

304
00:17:16,140 --> 00:17:20,540
to be fairly honest, because in fact the first and I don't know if it's still the only one,

305
00:17:20,540 --> 00:17:23,300
but for the longest time, I think the last three or so, the blockchain founders fund

306
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was the only fund which was registered with the MAS, which is allowed to accept stable

307
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coins or capital contributions from our LPs.

308
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I would think that the regulator has given us the blessing to do so.

309
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I think we should go with that interpretation where I think stable coins are nothing but

310
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a form of a particular type of currency available on mainnet.

311
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That's all that there is.

312
00:17:43,260 --> 00:17:46,700
I don't think there's anything more or less to it because I mean, even when we record

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our thing internally, the commitment side, there are fluctuations on USDT versus USDC,

314
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but we don't.

315
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We just record it like a slack, because it is what it is.

316
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There's literally nothing there in that sense.

317
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I think they're just a different form of currency.

318
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Right.

319
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Now these things have been taken care of.

320
00:18:06,740 --> 00:18:11,900
Now let's get into the heart of the podcast, which is unfortunately, again, the buzzword

321
00:18:11,900 --> 00:18:17,020
of last year definitely was Chat GPT and generative AI.

322
00:18:17,020 --> 00:18:21,460
So what was your initial impression when this technology came out?

323
00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:24,420
I tried using Chat GPT 3.

324
00:18:24,420 --> 00:18:28,460
I think it was pretty average and basic at that time, and it kind of put me off because

325
00:18:28,460 --> 00:18:33,380
it was hyped so much, but I didn't use it like at all till like Chat GPT 4 came out

326
00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:37,540
and like, luckily we at the fund have a subscription of Chat GPT 4.

327
00:18:37,540 --> 00:18:41,380
So I started using it then, when I started using it then, it's when I realized what the

328
00:18:41,380 --> 00:18:46,660
real potential of this software is, I can literally tell it to calculate the volatility

329
00:18:46,660 --> 00:18:51,820
of the top 120 coins, like by uploading an Excel on internet, it does it within seconds

330
00:18:51,820 --> 00:18:52,820
or minutes.

331
00:18:52,820 --> 00:18:54,420
I don't need to know finance.

332
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I don't need to know black shows.

333
00:18:55,940 --> 00:18:57,060
I don't need to know anything.

334
00:18:57,060 --> 00:18:58,060
It just does it.

335
00:18:58,060 --> 00:18:59,060
Right.

336
00:18:59,060 --> 00:19:01,900
And because it's mathematics, it's not like asking it for a case law where it's right

337
00:19:01,900 --> 00:19:04,500
or wrong or it's like a made up case or whatever, right.

338
00:19:04,500 --> 00:19:05,500
It's math.

339
00:19:05,500 --> 00:19:09,540
And that's what this system has been designed to do, like execute mathematical formula at

340
00:19:09,540 --> 00:19:10,620
the end of the day.

341
00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:14,140
So in that sense, it was like eye-opening for me that, you know, how good this entire

342
00:19:14,140 --> 00:19:19,620
system is and like, I still don't think that it's a system where it will replace people,

343
00:19:19,620 --> 00:19:24,620
but I think that if used correctly, it can generate a lot of efficiencies in the workplace.

344
00:19:24,620 --> 00:19:25,620
Okay.

345
00:19:25,620 --> 00:19:28,660
So yeah, that brings me to the next question.

346
00:19:28,660 --> 00:19:33,700
Someone who's working in a company, where do you think this technology has the best

347
00:19:33,700 --> 00:19:35,700
potential of being implemented?

348
00:19:36,700 --> 00:19:42,060
See, I think in our setup, it gets used a lot for, I would think, you know, on the marketing

349
00:19:42,060 --> 00:19:47,220
side to generate some sort of caption or generate some sort of buzz or sometimes even

350
00:19:47,220 --> 00:19:50,700
like, you know, when you have writers block in terms of crafting memos or things like

351
00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:51,700
that.

352
00:19:51,700 --> 00:19:54,940
So in that sense, it becomes a very good tool to plug the holes for us.

353
00:19:54,940 --> 00:19:58,740
I think the greatest thing would be like once it evolves a bit more and is able to accept

354
00:19:58,740 --> 00:20:02,460
data and a little bit more raw format right now, I sort of realized when I was doing my

355
00:20:02,460 --> 00:20:06,220
NAB modeling and things like that, that you still have to let put in data in a certain

356
00:20:06,220 --> 00:20:10,140
manner for it to understand and do some calculations that I think it evolved.

357
00:20:10,140 --> 00:20:14,900
I think processing of voluminous raw data is where I think this tool is really going

358
00:20:14,900 --> 00:20:15,900
to shine.

359
00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:16,900
Right.

360
00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:20,380
I think AI, like, you know, like image generation and video generation and all that, sure, like

361
00:20:20,380 --> 00:20:24,180
it's going to be there, but I think nothing is really ever going to replace actual creativity

362
00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:25,440
in that sense.

363
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:30,740
But processing of voluminous data that requires a lot of man hours to do or for you to write

364
00:20:30,820 --> 00:20:34,180
like millions of lines of code to create a software could do it.

365
00:20:34,180 --> 00:20:36,820
I think this is a good solution for that.

366
00:20:36,820 --> 00:20:37,820
Right.

367
00:20:37,820 --> 00:20:43,620
So any specific tool or any specific instance that you can remember where you felt that,

368
00:20:43,620 --> 00:20:48,260
oh, God, this AI is really going to take over the world?

369
00:20:48,260 --> 00:20:50,940
I wouldn't say that takeover is possibly an extreme.

370
00:20:50,940 --> 00:20:53,900
No, I don't think I think that's an extreme.

371
00:20:53,900 --> 00:20:58,860
But I feel that as it gets smarter and smarter, it's going to be able to do a lot of the

372
00:20:58,860 --> 00:20:59,860
tasks.

373
00:20:59,860 --> 00:21:00,860
I would think like automatedly.

374
00:21:00,860 --> 00:21:05,100
And I think that's where I think it gets a little risky and it gets risky because of

375
00:21:05,100 --> 00:21:09,780
because we will start increasing reliance much like how we have reliance on every other

376
00:21:09,780 --> 00:21:10,780
equipment in our kitchen, right?

377
00:21:10,780 --> 00:21:14,620
That tomorrow the microwave breaks down, we're unable to, we don't know how to eat food.

378
00:21:14,620 --> 00:21:15,620
Let's be very honest.

379
00:21:15,620 --> 00:21:19,260
Nobody thinks that, oh, we can just put it in a steam sort of a situation and the food

380
00:21:19,260 --> 00:21:20,260
will get heated.

381
00:21:20,260 --> 00:21:21,820
It gets heated in a microwave.

382
00:21:21,820 --> 00:21:22,820
Right.

383
00:21:22,820 --> 00:21:23,820
Nobody thinks about it.

384
00:21:23,820 --> 00:21:24,820
Right.

385
00:21:24,820 --> 00:21:25,820
So we get we get handicapped.

386
00:21:25,900 --> 00:21:30,020
My concern that once the dependency increases, and this is what I see, you know, like when

387
00:21:30,020 --> 00:21:34,060
we have interns or, you know, when I have had interns or juniors in my other law firm,

388
00:21:34,060 --> 00:21:37,060
that the knee-jerk reaction is I'll just look it up on Chat GPT.

389
00:21:37,060 --> 00:21:42,380
Sort of become an alternate or just substitute for Google, seriously so, because Google just

390
00:21:42,380 --> 00:21:43,380
gives you raw data.

391
00:21:43,380 --> 00:21:47,100
You still need to look at the raw data, here it just gives you answer straight away.

392
00:21:47,100 --> 00:21:52,100
My concern is around that it will become a source of information which may become gospel,

393
00:21:52,100 --> 00:21:53,620
which may not be entirely true.

394
00:21:53,620 --> 00:21:56,180
That is my issue with this system.

395
00:21:56,180 --> 00:21:58,260
That's quite a valid concern, right?

396
00:21:58,260 --> 00:22:02,700
Because you know, we stop remembering phone numbers, when smaprtphones became

397
00:22:02,700 --> 00:22:03,700
omni-present.

398
00:22:03,700 --> 00:22:10,580
So how would you advise the younger lawyers to not become so dependent on this new technology?

399
00:22:10,580 --> 00:22:13,460
So technology is good to be used where it can be used, right?

400
00:22:13,460 --> 00:22:17,180
Let's say you're struggling with specific laws in an agreement.

401
00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:21,580
You can tell Chat GPT to craft a clause for you and it will give you a pretty recent result.

402
00:22:21,580 --> 00:22:22,580
Okay.

403
00:22:22,580 --> 00:22:23,580
I've also done it.

404
00:22:24,540 --> 00:22:30,500
I've used Chat GPT to do it, and it does a pretty decent job at it.

405
00:22:30,500 --> 00:22:34,980
But when it comes to like ground research, right, or let's say understanding what a case

406
00:22:34,980 --> 00:22:39,220
law, for example, you shouldn't be putting a case law into Chat GPT and tell them that

407
00:22:39,220 --> 00:22:41,660
give me a fire act, or so and so case.

408
00:22:41,660 --> 00:22:45,700
That's just like, that's never going to really substitute reading the actual case.

409
00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:48,460
Because it's never going to give you the understanding of the law.

410
00:22:48,460 --> 00:22:52,820
Secondly, like going into Chat GPT and saying, especially and this is more true for Indian

411
00:22:52,820 --> 00:22:56,740
law and anything else, is because if that system is not developed here, it may not

412
00:22:56,740 --> 00:22:58,940
even give you the right data, right?

413
00:22:58,940 --> 00:22:59,940
A lot of right case law.

414
00:22:59,940 --> 00:23:03,740
I know Chat GPT's failed part will count for me when I've tried to get a case law from

415
00:23:03,740 --> 00:23:04,740
India.

416
00:23:04,740 --> 00:23:05,740
It's good for certain things.

417
00:23:05,740 --> 00:23:08,300
Like don't depend on Chat GPT to draft entire agreements.

418
00:23:08,300 --> 00:23:09,740
I don't think it's still does it.

419
00:23:09,740 --> 00:23:11,740
I don't think it's ever going to do it.

420
00:23:11,740 --> 00:23:15,100
Maybe there'll be an add-on plugin that's at some point which allows you to generate

421
00:23:15,100 --> 00:23:16,900
full 50, 60 page documents.

422
00:23:16,900 --> 00:23:21,860
When I tried doing it just for fun, it still generates documents that are very US typical,

423
00:23:21,860 --> 00:23:22,860
not India.

424
00:23:22,860 --> 00:23:23,860
Right.

425
00:23:23,860 --> 00:23:28,580
Because that's where the majority of the data has come in.

426
00:23:28,580 --> 00:23:29,580
Correct.

427
00:23:29,580 --> 00:23:33,860
Your language learning model is from the US.

428
00:23:33,860 --> 00:23:38,300
In terms of contracts, especially because that's where the publicly available contracts

429
00:23:38,300 --> 00:23:39,300
are there.

430
00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:43,740
Like if you look at how many publicly available contracts of Indian origin are there on the

431
00:23:43,740 --> 00:23:45,100
internet, there are very few.

432
00:23:45,100 --> 00:23:51,060
Vis-a-vis you get the huge amount of contracts data that is available on internet of US companies.

433
00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:54,660
So that's what they got and that's what they trained on.

434
00:23:54,660 --> 00:23:55,660
Yeah.

435
00:23:55,660 --> 00:23:56,660
Yeah.

436
00:23:56,660 --> 00:23:57,660
And absolutely.

437
00:23:57,660 --> 00:24:00,380
And I think that's a very good thing because you're able to check out clauses from those

438
00:24:00,380 --> 00:24:04,220
agreements which have been around for so long and stood the test of time, which you

439
00:24:04,220 --> 00:24:06,300
can implement in your own contracts in India.

440
00:24:06,300 --> 00:24:09,340
And they're pretty much in force because both are formatted.

441
00:24:09,340 --> 00:24:10,820
In that sense, it's great.

442
00:24:10,820 --> 00:24:15,860
But don't be over reliant on using these tools because they're not perfect.

443
00:24:15,860 --> 00:24:16,860
You'll end up in a mess.

444
00:24:16,860 --> 00:24:20,140
Honestly, like it got into a point where even at our end, right?

445
00:24:20,140 --> 00:24:23,660
Like we've gotten feedback from some of our portfolio company, Straw Venture Program that

446
00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:28,380
they have said that the answer that some of the people provide are very Chat GPT-esque.

447
00:24:28,380 --> 00:24:29,380
Right?

448
00:24:29,380 --> 00:24:33,100
People are realizing that what's coming out of Chad GPT-esque now.

449
00:24:33,100 --> 00:24:34,100
So let's be very honest.

450
00:24:34,100 --> 00:24:35,100
Like we've been honest.

451
00:24:35,100 --> 00:24:36,100
Okay.

452
00:24:36,100 --> 00:24:38,660
Nirav, you are a gem.

453
00:24:38,660 --> 00:24:40,860
Thank you for joining us today.

454
00:24:40,860 --> 00:24:47,740
And to our listeners, stay tuned for the second part of this podcast and more illegal adventures.

455
00:24:47,740 --> 00:24:50,060
Until next time, this is Avinash signing off.