Reliance-Backed Group Unveils Hanooman, a Series of Indic Language AI Models: Report

Hanooman, a series of language models focused towards the Indian demographic was unveiled on Wednesday, February 21, as per a report. The artificial intelligence (AI) models are said to be built by the Reliance Industries-backed BharatGPT group. The group is led by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and seven other IITs. The AI model was reportedly showcased at a recent technology event in Mumbai. This comes just a month after Reliance Jio announced Jio Brain, an AI and machine learning (ML) platform for enterprises.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the consortium plans to launch the AI models next month. Reportedly, the Hanooman series of AI models supports 11 Indian regional languages and will operate in the fields of healthcare, governance, financial services, and education. This likely means that the language model was trained on data involving these sectors, and as a result, AI tools built using the model will also be proficient in these fields.

While language accessibility is a big focus, Hanooman also reportedly comes with multimodal capabilities including text, speech, and video. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Chair of IIT Bombay's Department of Computer Science and Engineering told Bloomberg that it will also offer speech-to-text capabilities. The aim is to reach people who cannot read or write. The event also reportedly showcased VizzhyGPT, a customised version of the AI model that operates in the field of healthcare and has been trained on relevant data.

The publication revealed that during the event, a demo video was shown where a mechanic asked queries to a chatbot built using Hanooman in the Tamil language, a bank employee spoke with it in the Hindi language, and a developer used it to write codes.

A separate report by the Times of India touts it to be open source. It highlighted that the first four language models in the Hanooman series, carrying 1.5 billion, seven billion, 13 billion, and 40 billion parameters each, will be available to developers and researchers. It will likely be made available to build specific AI tools such as summarising chatbots, and more. Commercial rights will likely not be given for the models since Reliance Jio is reported to be building specific AI tools based on the language model.