The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is reportedly developing a WhatsApp chatbot for farmers in India powered by ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI.
MeitY's Bhashini team is testing the chatbot that is set to help farmers learn about various government schemes. In addition, the chatbot supports 12 languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Odia, and Assamese. MeitY is working to add more languages and voices to its repository and train language processing models in as many Indian languages as possible.
According to the media reports, the WhatsApp chatbot will enable farmers to send a question via voice notes, allowing users who may not be familiar with typing on smartphones to access information.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about a similar chatbot at the World Economic Forum, in which Indian farmers would be able to use a GPT interface to access a government program through the internet.
Although the WhatsApp chatbot's launch may take some time, as it currently relies on input in English and has limited support for local languages, MeitY is hopeful that the addition of more languages will enable the technology to reach a larger number of people.
The chatbot is designed to answer simple queries about government schemes, among other things. While ChatGPT covers a wide range of topics, the chatbot's available version may not be as accurate as the original.
Other companies, such as Google, are also adopting AI technology to create smarter platforms. Google's Bard, another AI chatbot, is being integrated into its search engine to allow users to obtain information in a conversational way.
MeitY is not the only organization in India to work with WhatsApp on creating dedicated chatbots. The MyGov WhatsApp chatbot, launched by both the central and state governments, offers several services and is widely used.
FAQs
Q1: What is the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) Bhashini team?
MeitY's Bhashini team is a group within the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT that focuses on developing language technologies for the Indian market.
Q2: What is MeitY and what is its role?
MeitY, or the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, is a government body in India responsible for formulating policies related to e-governance, electronics and IT, and digital initiatives.
