Recently, TWO hosted Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, and Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, at their US office, where they discussed the evolving role of AI in India and beyond over a cup of chai with founder Pranav Mistry.
“Pleasure hosting Mukesh Ambani and Akash Ambani at our TWO US office and discussing all things AI for India and beyond over chai,” Mistry posted on LinkedIn.
TWO, a startup backed by Reliance Jio, has launched a family of models called SUTRA. These cost-efficient, multilingual generative AI models excel in 50+ languages, offering speech, search, and visual processing capabilities. The model is available on the ChatSUTRA app, which is similar to ChatGPT.
The startup raised a $20M seed fund in February 2022 from Jio Platforms and South Korean internet conglomerate Naver. “Jio has been one of our key partners for a long time and has invested in us from the very beginning,” said Pranav Mistry, the founder of TWO, in an exclusive interaction with AIM.
He added that Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani takes a keen interest in the growth of the startup. “I meet with them often. Jio’s vision is to bring the power of AI through its services. Being a Jio partner gives us access to this market,” he said.
As of now, TWO offers four models on the SUTRA playground: Sutra Light, Sutra Pro, Sutra Turbo, and Sutra Online. “Some of our partners in Korea and India have already started evaluating our models and conducting pilots in their own products,” said Mistry.
In terms of capabilities, Mistry said, “SUTRA models are 56 billion parameters,” adding that it is a very small model compared to larger models showcasing a trillion parameters like OpenAI’s GPT-4o.
“The power of small models is that they can run very efficiently and at a very low cost. In order to run this model, we require a single NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPU” added Mistry.
Recently, the company launched SUTRA Avatar, a virtual avatar model that offers real-time interaction with PixelReal visuals and synchronised voice synthesis. Built on TWO’s proprietary machine learning technologies, the avatar enhances digital engagement through lifelike visuals and natural voice coordination.
SUTRA Avatar can be deployed across multiple fields, including customer service, education, entertainment, retail, and marketing. In customer service, for instance, the avatar can handle inquiries in real time, while in education, it can provide real-time feedback in virtual lessons. Its flexibility also extends to virtual reality and gaming, offering immersive experiences.
India’s Jio Moment in AI is Here
Reliance Industries recently unveiled consumer-focused AI initiatives, including Jio Brain, Jio AI-Cloud, and Jio Phone Call AI, alongside its vision for a national AI infrastructure, challenging global cloud giants and transforming India’s AI landscape.
At the 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM), Ambani, the RIL chairman and managing director, emphasised AI’s central role in the company’s future, showcasing innovations like JioBrain, an AI service platform that will enhance operations across all Reliance enterprises.
Jio also introduced an AI-powered feature designed to transcribe, summarise, and translate phone conversations in real-time.
“Thanks to Jio, India is now the world’s largest data market,” said Ambani.
The immense data pool provides Jio with unparalleled insights and the ability to continuously refine and scale its AI solutions, ensuring they are both effective and widely applicable.
Jio’s entry into the AI cloud market is a direct challenge to established players like Google Cloud. As part of its AI strategy, Jio introduced the Jio AI-Cloud Welcome Offer, which provides up to 100 GB of free cloud storage for Jio users starting this Diwali.
