Reliance Consortium To Unveil India’s ChatGPT Alternative

A high profile consortium named ‘BharatGPT’ comprising billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries along with eight elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) announced timeline to launch indigenous alternative to popular conversational AI chatbot ChatGPT in March 2024. The AI model — named Hanooman—is expected to position India as a global contender in cutting-edge generative language technologies.

Significance for India’s AI Aspirations

As India sets sight on emerging as an Artificial Intelligence powerhouse matching ambitious policy aims like National AI Strategy envisioning $1 trillion contribution by technology to economy by 2036, the collaborative effort marks first credible attempt at creating locally tailored large language models with deep technological capabilities and wider socio-cultural alignment.

Areas of Focus and Uniqueness

While details remain undisclosed, BharatGPT highlighted building contextual awareness around Indian languages diversity, knowledge across domains from agriculture to yoga and blending entertainment with education as some differentiation areas for the Made-in-India chatbot service to compete against Google, Microsoft and OpenAI who dominate space.

Reliance Leading Private Sector Charge

Ambani’s $200 billion market cap Reliance has been spearheading private sector investments into forward-looking technologies from 5G telecom, green energy to AI leveraging proven execution scale and deep integration potential with millions of retail consumers uniquely positioning it to fast-track adoption.
Reliance Group is already working on Jio Brain, a platform to use AI across a network of about 450 million subscribers.

Public-Private Partnership Model

BharatGPT reflects commitment from India’s elite public technology institutions like IIT Bombay, Delhi, Madras who would provide rich research support in AI alongside Reliance and group company Asteria Aerospace handling product development, testing, rollout and commercialization aspects within collaborative framework.

BharatGPT envisions the model working via 11 local languages in four main fields including health care, governance, financial services and education. It developed the model in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology universities including in Bombay, backed by wireless carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Indian government.

Large Language Models

Large Language Models or LLMs are systems that learn from vast quantities of data and generate natural-sounding responses. Such models utilise generative AI, a newer type of artificial intelligence popularised by the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
As global democratization of AI gathers momentum to prevent concentration of power, BharatGPT promises to consolidate India’s technology self-reliance credentials leveraging synergies between academic excellence and private sector enterprise leadership.

Category: Science & Technology Current Affairs