Reliance's 'Hanooman': BharatGPT, backed by Mukesh Ambani, set to launch in March
In a significant stride towards homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) in India, the BharatGPT group, supported by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and leading engineering schools, is set to unveil its inaugural ChatGPT-style service next month.
Developed in collaboration with eight Indian Institutes of Technology and backed by Reliance Jio Infocomm and the central government, the consortium, including Reliance and eight IITs, presented a preview of the model at a recent technology conference in Mumbai. Dubbed 'Hanooman,' the model showcased interactions in various local languages, covering healthcare, governance, financial services, and education.
Hanooman is designed to operate in 11 local languages across these four sectors, demonstrating its versatility. Notably, the model will include speech-to-text capabilities, enhancing its user-friendliness, according to Ganesh Ramakrishnan, chair of IIT Bombay’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
This development comes in the wake of other startups like Sarvam and Krutrim, backed by notable VC investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and billionaire Vinod Khosla’s fund, also working on open-sourced AI models tailored for India.
Reliance Jio, part of this initiative, plans to create customized AI models for specific purposes. The conglomerate is actively developing 'Jio Brain,' an AI platform intended for its vast network of approximately 450 million subscribers.
Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are pivotal systems that learn from extensive data to produce natural-sounding responses. This genre of models relies on generative AI, a newer facet of artificial intelligence popularized by OpenAI’s successful ChatGPT.
BharatGPT's venture into this arena stands out as a unique private-public partnership, marking the first of its kind in India. This collaboration involves major players from diverse fields, emphasizing a collective effort in the country's AI landscape.
