Over 50 firms sign up for race to develop India-specific AI models

The government has received expressions of interest from more than 50 companies to develop an India-specific artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model, small language models (SLMs), and large language models (LLMs), sources familiar with the matter said.

- AASHISH ARYAN

Among them, nearly a dozen firms have shown interest in building the foundation model and LLMs, while others have proposed sector-specific SLMs, a source said.

"A detailed framework outlining the requirements for developing the foundation model, SLMs, or LLMs will be released in a few days. Bidders will need to qualify on parameters such as feasibility, scalability, and practicality of their proposals," a government official said.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) did not respond to an email request for comment.