Local ChatGPT-like language models have a long way to go

OLA CO-FOUNDER AND CEO Bhavish Aggarwal made news last week by unveiling a Made in India large language model (LLM) and generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform Krutrim on the lines of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard.

- SAMEER RANJAN BAKSHI

However, Aggarwal is neither the first nor the only homegrown firm to come out with such an offering. There are several others who have ventured into the field earlier and are in the process of developing such models.

But will these models emerge as global alternatives to ChatGPT and Bard in terms of scale and capability, or will just serve niche segments? Analysts say that the answer will lie in the available data sets these players are able to tap and the number of servers they are able to deploy. Both require large investments and painstaking efforts.

However, the case for addressing specific use cases is certainly there.

For instance, Krutrim, which will come in two models -- a base model and a Pro model -- is currently being used by all Ola group companies for a variety of internal tasks, including customer support, voice and chat, and customer sales calls.

Vivek Raghavan, founder of home-grown generative AI startup, SarvamAI, which unveiled OpenHathi, the first Hindi LLM, before Krutrim, says that instead of having large LLMs like open AI, there can be smaller LLMs which are more efficient and can be deployed at lower cost.