Launch of BharatGen: an Indian ChatGPT

by LibCognizance in AI models, BharatGen, ChatGPT, Indian ChatGPT, LLMs

BharatGen—launched in India on September 30, 2024—a groundbreaking initiative in generative AI—designed to transform public service delivery and enhance citizen participation through foundational models in language, speech, and computer vision. The event took place in New Delhi, attended by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State, who emphasized India's commitment to fostering homegrown technologies. BharatGen Initiative Overview

Event Highlights

Statement from Dr. Jitendra Singh

“BharatGen exemplifies India's commitment to nurturing indigenous innovations, positioning us as a leader in the global Generative AI landscape.” He noted that this initiative is the world's first government-supported multimodal large language model project dedicated to creating inclusive AI solutions in Indian languages.

Leadership and Collaboration

Led by IIT Bombay under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), BharatGen aims to develop generative AI systems that produce high-quality content in multiple Indian languages. This effort involves prestigious institutions, including several IITs and IIIT Hyderabad.

Overview of BharatGen

Objective: To revolutionize public service delivery and enhance citizen engagement through foundational models in language, speech, and computer vision. BharatGen aims to democratize AI across government, education, and private sectors, ensuring benefits reach all segments of society, especially underserved linguistic groups. This initiative aligns with the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision by promoting domestically developed AI technologies, reducing reliance on foreign solutions. BharatGen will cater to both written and spoken communication, ensuring representation across India’s diverse linguistic landscape. By utilizing multilingual datasets, it captures the intricacies of Indian languages often overlooked in global AI models, enhancing India's control over its digital narrative.

Understanding Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) are extensive deep learning frameworks trained on vast datasets, capable of understanding, interpreting, and generating human languages along with complex data types. Their applications span customer service, healthcare, and education. In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), showcasing the transformative potential of LLMs in conversational AI applications. Generative AI autonomously produces content based on natural language prompts, creating entirely new outputs across various formats, including text, images, videos, and music. This technology is trained on data from web pages and social media, generating content by recognizing and replicating data patterns.

Key Characteristics of BharatGen

Feature	Description
Multilingual and Multimodal Foundation Models	Development of AI models catering to various languages and communication methods.
India-Centric Datasets	Focus on creating and training using datasets that represent India's rich cultural and linguistic diversity.
Open-Source Framework	Encouraging AI research and innovation through an open-source model.
Project Timeline	The initiative is expected to be completed by 2026, with ongoing research, development, and scaling of AI applications.