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Microsoft Launches an AI-Based mostly Multilingual Chatbot for Rural India

Microsoft is launching an AI-based multilingual Chatbot known as ‘Jugalbandi’ for rural India

Microsoft has introduced ‘Jugalbandi,’ a brand new generative AI-driven chatbot developed for farmers and different customers in rural India. The chatbot is being created in partnership with Microsoft Analysis, the government-supported AI4Bharat – an open-source language AI institute positioned on the Indian Institute of Expertise (IIT) Madras – and OpenNyAI.

In response to a information launch, the multilingual chatbot will use the WhatsApp messaging service to offer details about authorities applications in several languages.  Microsoft has said that the AI-Based multilingual Chatbot may be capable of assist India, the place simply 11% of the nation’s 1.4 billion individuals communicate English, overcome its language barrier. Moreover, simply 57% of Indians can talk in Hindi, which means that “a big portion of the inhabitants is unable to entry authorities applications as a consequence of language obstacles.”

Because of this, “Jugalbandi affords all Indians easy accessibility to data within the native language by way of a cell phone, as a substitute of getting to go to the local people service heart and stand in queue simply to get fundamental data,” in line with the enterprise.

Moreover, the corporate stated that the chatbot for rural India acknowledges a person’s explicit downside of their language after which strives to supply the related data constantly and affordably, even when it resides in a database someplace in one other language.

To make the most of the chatbot, merely message “hello” to a sure quantity, as you’d with another WhatsApp chatbot. “A villager initiates the Jugalbandi bot by sending a textual content or audio message to a WhatsApp quantity.” The AI4 Bharat voice recognition mannequin is used to transform this to textual content. “The Bhashini translation mannequin educated by AI4Bharat then interprets this to English,” Microsoft wrote on its weblog.

“Azure OpenAI Service’s mannequin retrieves data on the related authorities scheme based mostly on the immediate.” The response has been translated into Hindi. “That is then synthesized utilizing the AI4Bharat text-to-speech mannequin and returned to WhatsApp – and the villager’s ear,” the enterprise defined.

Jugalbandi now covers 10 of India’s 22 official languages and 171 of the almost 20,000 authorities initiatives. Nevertheless, the agency has indicated that this system nonetheless has “tough edges,” however that AI4Bharat is making an attempt to sort out difficulties by soliciting suggestions from teams reminiscent of Gramme Vaani, a Delhi-based social enterprise that works straight with farmers.