Earlier this year, Indian multinational ridesharing company, Ola, introduced Krutrim AI, claiming it as “India’s own AI”. Upon launch, it was revealed that the initial iteration of the product will get substantial enhancements as the company aims to expand its foundation.
Here is a look at Krutrim AI, its capabilities, and the technology behind it.
What is Krutrim AI?
According to Ola, Krutrim AI is an assistant “envisioned to be your own personalised assistant, which can simplify your personal and professional life by getting a variety of tasks done for you, while keeping the aesthetic sense and sensibilities of the Indian ethos.”
The company aims to develop a unique form of AI designed to cater to the diverse needs and nuances of the Indian consumer. Ola claims Krutrim is built on its own foundation model and that it is “Indian at heart.” The company said the AI assistant is its first step towards its product journey and building the nation’s own AI.
However, last month, some users found that the chatbot was saying it was a large language model (LLM), which was created by OpenAI. Ola later clarified that it was a “data leak issue”.
When The Indian Express asked the chatbot who it was, it responded by saying, “Namaste! I am Krutrim, a product of Ola. I’m a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to generate human-like text based on the input I receive. I’m here to assist and provide information to the best of my ability. How can I help you today?” This showed the company had promptly fixed the issue.
Krutrim Assistant can help with a variety of creative and knowledge retrieval tasks. One can write an email, seek information on topics of interest, learn new skills, plan travel or learn a new recipe, and more.
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What can Krutrim AI do?
With the help of Krutrim, Ola hopes to bridge the gap between conventional AI and the specific needs based on Indian languages and culture.
Krutrim is supposed to be different from its international peers as it claims to be able to perform tasks in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada and Hinglish.
However, when The Indian Express gave prompts to Krutrim AI, it could only respond in English. Possibly, later iterations of the model may feature the above-mentioned languages.
When it comes to the underlying technology, Krutrim AI works on a sophisticated AI model that has been trained on a vast dataset of text and code, according to Ola. This dataset reportedly includes a wide range of information specific to India such as local languages, social contexts, cultural references, etc. By ingesting and processing these datasets, the AI model is able to understand the subtle nuances and generate responses that users can relate to.
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The company claims that one of the distinguishing features of Krutrim AI is that it has the ability to understand the intent of the user. While most AI models rely on keyword matching and statistical probabilities, Krutrim AI reportedly dives deeper to understand the user’s request. And, it is this approach that reportedly allows it to throw up relevant and contextually aware responses.
What is the tech behind Krutrim AI?
Krutrim AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) — a component of AI — to understand the nuances of human language, including colloquialisms and cultural contexts. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms enable it to learn from vast data sets and improve its responses over time. Moreover, Deep Learning, a sophisticated branch of ML, helps it recognise patterns and analyse complex data, which could be crucial for Krutrim AI’s performance. While the exact technologies used are not disclosed, these methodologies align with the AI’s demonstrated functions.
How can it help users?
Krutrim AI offers a wide range of applications across various sectors, significantly enhancing user experiences, according to Ola. The company said Krutrim AI-powered chatbots can also offer culturally sensitive interactions in Indian languages, improving support experiences. In education, it offers personalised learning, tailoring content to address individual needs within the Indian context.
For content creators, Krutrim AI can help with the ideation and localisation of content to make it more relatable. Besides, when it comes to administrative tasks across industries, this could help in automating repetitive tasks.
