Meta, the global technology company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ‘India AI,’ an independent business unit under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, to promote collaboration in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging Technologies. This partnership is poised to leverage Meta’s open-source AI models and research, such as LlaMA, Massively Multilingual Speech, and No Language Left Behind, to foster innovation, inclusivity, and economic growth in India.
Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, emphasized that their open approach to AI innovation aligns with India’s leadership on digital issues. By granting businesses, startups, and researchers access to cutting-edge AI technologies, this collaboration aims to create numerous social and economic opportunities. The partnership between government and industry will strengthen India’s digital leadership and cater to AI solutions tailored to the country’s unique needs.
What’s the goal of India AI?
India has been at the forefront of embracing digital technologies, and AI and Emerging Technologies are expected to play a central role in extending the benefits of technology to a wider population. Through this collaboration, ‘India AI’ and Meta will work together on joint research and development endeavors, seeking breakthroughs in AI technology and its practical applications.
As part of the collaboration, both organizations are exploring establishing a Centre of Excellence to nurture the AI startup ecosystem and foster innovation in Emerging Technologies. This initiative aims to enhance the startup ecosystem in India and drive AI-based solutions that address significant challenges.
Empowering low-resource languages with AI
The partnership will prioritize the creation of datasets in Indian languages to enable translation and large language models, focusing on low-resource languages. By leveraging Meta’s AI research models, the collaboration aims to foster social inclusion, improve government service delivery, and drive innovation through Generative AI, cognitive systems, and translation models.
Enhancing accessibility to AI compute resources
The collaboration between ‘India AI’ and Meta also aims to improve accessibility to AI computing resources for researchers, startups, and organizations with limited resources. By sharing knowledge and fostering collaboration through workshops, seminars, and conferences, the partners seek to create a more inclusive and dynamic AI ecosystem.
Both organizations aim to raise awareness about AI’s potential benefits and risks among various stakeholders, including policymakers, businesses, civil society, and the general public. Through collaborative efforts, they will develop comprehensive tools and guidelines to promote responsible AI practices.
Meta’s AI models in Indian academic institutions
Meta’s AI research models are already being tested by Indian academic institutions, signifying the country’s interest and potential for AI innovation. By creating and expanding open datasets for research, such as ccMatrix, Vox Populi, and benchmarking datasets like FLORES-200 and Casual Conversations v2 Dataset, Meta aims to support academic research and innovation.
Meta’s AI research model, No Language Left Behind (NLLB-200), has demonstrated the potential to translate 200 languages, including 25 Indian languages, with high accuracy. This breakthrough can potentially revolutionize communication and information access in a linguistically diverse country like India.
Progress in speech recognition for low-resource languages
Meta’s Massively Multilingual Speech (MMS) project has significantly expanded speech recognition technologies for low-resource languages. This includes speech-to-text and text-to-speech models for over 1,100 languages, including around 60 Indian languages, enabling research use cases and fostering innovation.
India’s velocity of change, driven by adopting new technologies, is inspirational. With a flourishing developer base and the world’s third-largest start-up ecosystem, India is poised to leverage AI technologies to strengthen digital governance and enhance the lives of its citizens.
Meta’s open-source approach to AI innovation
Industry-standard frameworks like React and PyTorch exemplify meta’s history of success with an open-source approach to innovation. By collaborating with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, Meta aims to support the development of helpful and safer generative AI technologies.
The partnership between Meta and ‘India AI’ marks a significant step forward in advancing AI technologies in India. The collaboration aims to drive innovation, foster inclusivity, and create AI solutions tailored to India’s unique requirements by leveraging Meta’s AI research models, expertise, and commitment to an open approach. Through this joint effort, the future of AI in India looks promising, and it is expected to have a transformative impact on various sectors, driving social and economic progress.
A Slack Report states that India is leading in AI adoption, and 75% Indian desk employees say it is driving up their productivity. Meta would be an interesting addition to India’s AI partners.
