Researchers at India’s AI4Bharat are reportedly seeking to raise $12 million in funding from venture capital firms Peak XV and Lightspeed Venture to launch their own AI startup. Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, who developed AI models for speech recognition and translation at AI4Bharat, plan to establish their venture named Sarvam. Sarvam aims to provide custom-made large language models (LLMs) tailored to India-centric use cases.
AI4Bharat’s recent government-backed initiative
AI4Bharat, with government support, recently introduced a mobile assistant-enabled system that facilitates easy access to government schemes in multiple Indian languages. This move likely contributed to the researchers’ decision to launch their own AI startup.
Growth and promotion of AI in India
Generative AI has gained traction in India, with its applications expanding across various sectors. The Indian government has actively promoted AI adoption across functions, such as education and information access, recognizing the transformative potential of generative AI technologies.
Government regulation and global discussions on AI
While embracing AI, the Indian government also acknowledges the need to ensure data security and protect digital citizens. MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that AI will be regulated to prevent harm to citizens in the digital space. Discussions on AI’s opportunities, challenges, and global regulation needs have taken place, as highlighted by the meeting between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government aims to strike a balance between AI promotion and safeguarding citizens’ interests.
The AI landscape in India has attracted attention from global players like Google, which recently selected 20 startups for its accelerator program based on their use of generative AI in business processes. Indian AI-based startups, including ZuAI, WorkHack, and Builder.AI, have also secured investments, signaling the growth and potential of the AI ecosystem in the country.
