Kerala's 16-Year-Old AI Entrepreneur Employs Father To Work For Startup

Raul John Aju, a 16-year-old prodigy from Kerala, employs his father to work for him at his artificial intelligence startup, according to a news report on Thursday.

Aju's startup, AI Realm Technologies, is most well-known for its Project Just Ease programme, which it developed in collaboration with Kerala and Dubai's government. Its goal is to make legal information more accessible to citizens as well as help them with drafting and reviewing legal contracts.

Speaking at the India Today South Conclave 2025, Aju said that AI is meant to serve human goals and not the other way around. Regarding its likelihood to take human jobs, Aju said that AI would not replace human jobs but someone using AI might do so, and urged his audience to get educated in how to leverage this emerging technology.

Aju started learning about AI at the age of six, and built a robot, he named 'Me-bot' at age 16, which helps him with his efforts to make educational content and teaching AI and machine learning. The robot is built with his knowledge base and answer questions with his voice for international students when Raul is unable to do so himself, according to a report by India Today.

He is also active on social media using Instagram and YouTube to share educational content regarding AI. At a conclave event, he argued that India should build its own "tech race" instead of trying to compete on a global scale regarding AI.

He put emphasis on India being an innovation hub first and manufacturing hub second using case studies of other countries such as Malaysia and South Korea.

He said that both countries took diverging paths with Malaysia focusing on manufacturing but facing challenges in growth due to not investing in research and development as much. While South Korea, according to Aju, focused on innovation as well as manufacturing, giving it an advantage in growing its economy.