Language no barrier: "Hanooman" brings AI to millions in 11 Indian languages
In a notable stride towards the advancement of homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) in India, the BharatGPT consortium, supported by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and leading engineering institutions in the nation, is poised to introduce its initial ChatGPT-like service in the upcoming month.
During a technology conference in Mumbai, the BharatGPT group, which includes a subsidiary of India’s most valuable company and eight associated universities, provided a preview of the extensive language model. In a video presented to attendees, a motorcycle mechanic from southern India interacted with an AI bot using his native Tamil, a banker engaged with the tool in Hindi, and a developer from Hyderabad utilised it to write computer code.
Hanooman’s focus
Named Hanooman, the model symbolises India’s pursuit of developing potentially revolutionary AI technology. This model is designed to operate across 11 local languages, focusing on four key fields: healthcare, governance, financial services, and education.
According to Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Chair of IIT Bombay’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the ‘Hanooman’ model will also provide speech-to-text capabilities, enhancing its user-friendliness significantly. This feature was highlighted during the annual Nasscom IT industry conference, according to some reports.
It’s worth mentioning that there are other startups such as Sarvam and Krutrim, supported by notable VC investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and billionaire Vinod Khosla’s fund, actively developing open-sourced AI models tailored for India.
As per the report, Reliance Jio intends to create customized models for specific purposes. The conglomerate, with interests ranging from telecom to retail, is currently engaged in the development of ‘Jio Brain,’ a platform designed to leverage AI across its extensive network of approximately 450 million subscribers.
Collaborations & Partnerships
In partnership with Indian Institute of Technology universities and supported by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the model is under development. Additionally, there are other startups like Sarvam and Krutrim, which have received backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Vinod Khosla’s fund. These startups are also actively working on creating open-sourced AI models specifically tailored for the Indian context.
