India may soon gets its own ChatGPT-like tool

India might soon have its own version of OpenAI’s conversational AI tool ChatGPT. Speaking at the India Global Forum Annual Summit held this week, Union Minister for electronics and information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw indicated an upcoming ‘big announcement’ on India’s version of the popular AI chatbot in a few weeks.

From the time of its launch in November last year, ChatGPT has become the hottest technology tool. In just two months, the tool had over 100 million users. OpenAI launched a paid subscription-based model called ChatGPT Plus that runs on the newly launched large multimodal model GPT-4. Many companies like Google, Baidu, Salesforce, and others have launched their smart chatbots with capabilities similar to that of ChatGPT.

In addition to the remark on the launch of the AI chatbot, Vaishnaw also said that many global developers have shown interest in partnering with Indian entrepreneurs and startups. He added that India’s status as only a technology consumer is changing. “There was a time when India was a technology consumer only and today the time has come that many global developers would like to have Indian startups and entrepreneurs as their partner as their technology develops,” he said.

Vaishnaw also spoke about India’s plans to be at the forefront of 6G telecom services. India already has 127 patents for 6G telecom technology. As per Vaishnam, now is the time to start development in the field so that India can become the leader as the technology matures further.

To be sure, in December 2021, the department of telecommunication set up task forces for 6G, consisting of representatives from IITs and IISc. Last month, Vaishnaw said that these task forces have developed a roadmap for the technology.