Govt likely to push for use of domestic AI models in critical sectors

The government may ask critical sectors such as defence and aerospace to prioritise indigenous AI models and avoid using frontier systems developed by foreign companies

The central government is likely to push for greater use of indigenously developed artificial intelligence (AI) systems, large language models and AI-powered agents, especially in government-owned and -run critical sectors such as defence and aerospace, senior government officials said.

 

This could include asking critical government departments, both at the central and state levels, to completely avoid using frontier AI models and agents developed by non-Indian companies, an official said.

 

Some sectors, such as defence, which are already working on and developing their own air-gapped large language model systems that can work on the edge, have also been asked to review ways in which AI systems and agents developed indigenously under the IndiaAI Mission can be used and deployed, the official said.

 

Under the ₹10,372 crore IndiaAI Mission, the government has identified and approved the development of 20 models, which include general-purpose large language models (LLMs) and specific sector-focused small language models (SLMs).

 

These foundational models, LLMs and SLMs are being developed by 12 startups whose projects have been approved by the government under the IndiaAI Mission. These include Sarvam and BharatGen, both of which have so far released several AI models.

 

In addition, a video-generating AI model called Varya and foundation models EKA-1 by Soket, as well as Dhir 2B and Dhir 5B developed by ZenteiQ, have also been released.

 

Other companies such as Gnani, Gan AI, Fractal, Tech Mahindra and Shodh AI, all of which are among those selected to develop indigenous AI models, are also working to release LLMs and SLMs over the next 12-15 months, one of the officials quoted above said.

 

“The idea is to have enough technological capability to use these models in crucial sectors. We are in constant talks with all the companies (who won bids to develop indigenous AI models) to see if we can expand the scope of the models they have built so far,” the official said.

 

The official added that some of the domestic models developed so far had achieved up to 80 per cent of the capacity of leading frontier AI models.

 

The IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024, aims to catalyse various components, including pivotal initiatives such as IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing and Safe & Trusted AI. It also seeks to nurture the country’s AI innovation ecosystem through a public-private partnership model.