Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled Jugalbandi, a multilingual chatbot powered by generative AI and accessible through the well-known messaging app WhatsApp. The bot has been created specifically to cover rural parts of India that are difficult for media to reach and don’t have access to government social programmes.
“I put this to the test when I recently visited India, and I came to two conclusions. First, the fact that we have the ability to create products that can benefit 8 billion people rather than just a select few. And rather than taking years or centuries, this dissemination will be able to happen in just a few days or weeks. With this, we also secure protection of fundamental rights,” said Satya Nadella when announcing Jugalbandi.
In partnership with IIT Madras, AI4Bharat created the chatbot. According to Microsoft, it aims to offer individualized support by comprehending user inquiries in a variety of languages, whether they are spoken or typed.
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After receiving the request, the chatbot gets data from relevant programs, which are frequently only available in English, and returns it to consumers in their native tongue.
In order to provide smooth communication between users and the chatbot, Microsoft claims that Jugalbandi uses AI models from AI4Bharat and Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service. Large volumes of data can be synthesized by these generative AI technologies to produce text and other types of content.
By utilizing the databases owned by the Indian government, Jugalbandi provides consumers with a trustworthy and accountable platform while also ensuring data protection, according to Microsoft. The chatbot was introduced in April and put to the test in the village of Biwan, which is close to New Delhi, the capital of India.
