Hanooman: Reliance's March Launch - Mukesh Ambani-backed ChatGPT

Can you imagine a fisherman in Kerala trying to check the weather before venturing into the sea. Unfortunately, the only language he knows is Malayalam. Can you imagine a cook in Assam wondering how to make a Gujarati delicacy for his new boss, who has come in from Ahmedabad? He may be able to ask about a Gujarat dish in Assamese and also get the full interactive guidance in Assamese. How does a rural Telugu girl in a village get guidance on her computer program in her native language. If these kind of facilities sound far-fetched, they are not. They may be just about a month away. We are referring to the latest Generative AI interface “Hanooman” being launched by Reliance with 8 of the major IITs.

Now, Hanooman is one of the most popular and recognizable names in India. While it refers to the most ardent devotee of Lord Rama, it also has a larger connotation. He is the same devotee who made a direct leap from the tip of India to Ceylon. He is also the same power that lifted the entire Sanjeevani mountain to revive Lakshman. In short, Hanooman represents the power of the impossible. Or, as Napoleon Bonaparte would have said, “Impossible is a word in the dictionary of fools.” So, what exactly is this Hanooman Generative AI app all about?

Hanooman – An Experiment in Industry-Academia Collaboration

Hanooman has been developed jointly by the Reliance Jio Infocomm Centre and the 8 IITs in India. Hanooman will be largely on the lines of Chat GPT, the generative AI (artificial intelligence) platform that has already taken the world by storm. It goes a few steps beyond the current Chat GPT, in the sense that Hanooman is available for interactions in multiple languages with a mix of audio, video and text to offer a complete 360-degree experience. For now, it will offer interactions in 11 languages covering large swathes of India, but this list is being expended too. The launch will be in March, so that is just about one more month to go for the Bharat GTP product to be live and running in India.

Fits into the India Ai Aspiration Story

In the last few years, India has underlined the need to play a much bigger role in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that is currently sweeping the world. The predictions are from trillion dollar shifts in GDP to AI taking away millions of jobs globally. The only thing that is certain at this point of time is that the impact of AI on the world economy is going to be huge. India is perfectly poised with a solid background of 30 years of successful IT project execution, solid IT skills, and a trained army of young professionals. It has its best bet in making a big splash as AI takes off globally in a very big way. And, that is where Hanooman has a special positioning.

On the one hand, Hanooman is a testimony to the local talent in managing a high end AI project from end-to-end. India has been outsourcing for IT companies for too long and it is time that India created its own unique products. This AI-driven Hanooman could be one such product. More importantly, the project is an experiment that has only worked in fits and starts in the past. Industry academic interaction has been talked about extensively but it was yet to yield the desired results. This will be the first case where India’s largest and most valuable company, has collaborated with 8 of the premier technical training institutions in India to create an AI product that is unmatched in its positioning and versatility.

What will be the Primary Focus of Hanooman?

Obviously,  the generative AI platform cannot practically be everything for everybody and hence needs to define its focus areas. To begin with, it will focus on 11 local languages where the users can ask a question and get an answer in the local language itself. It will be focused on some key areas to begin with; like healthcare, government services, finance, and education. It will be offered on a separate platform called Jio Brain, which will initially address the 450 million subscribers of Jio mobile and broadband subscribers. Over time, the platform will create AI models that are tailored for India as well as AI-driven solutions across key services that are of maximum relevance to the vast Indian population. If it works, India may have just about arrived on the global AI scene!