Meta India and India AI sign agreement to foster advancements in AI & Emerging Technologies

The MoU was signed by  Abhishek Singh, CEO of India AI, and  Shivnath Thukral, Director & Head of Public Policy, Meta in India.

The objective of the MoU is to establish a framework for collaboration and cooperation between ‘India AI’ and Meta in the field of Artificial Intelligence & Emerging Technologies, said a press release by India's Ministry of Electronics and IT.

It aims to make Meta’s open-source AI models available for use by the Indian AI ecosystem.

Abhishek Singh, CEO of ‘India AI’, stated, “India is at the forefront of adopting digital technologies and it is evident that AI and Emerging Technologies will play a pivotal role in expanding the advantages of technology to a broader population. Through this partnership with Meta, the joint research and development endeavours will tackle large-scale challenges by leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies like Llama and other open-source solutions.”

Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs, Meta, said: “Meta’s open approach to AI innovation is complementary to India’s leadership on digital issues. Giving businesses, startups and researchers access to these technologies can open up a world of social and economic opportunities."

He said ‘India AI’ is an exciting programme and with close collaboration between government and industry, "we can strengthen India’s digital leadership and help to ensure AI tools are built for India’s unique needs.”

‘India AI’ and Meta have entered into the collaboration to aim at advancing research and development in AI & Emerging Technologies, seeking breakthroughs in AI technology and its applications.

Additionally, both organisations may also consider establishing a Centre of Excellence to nurture the startup ecosystem of AI & other Emerging Technologies.

Leveraging Meta's AI research models like LlaMA, Massively Multilingual Speech, and No Language Left Behind, the partnership will focus on building datasets in Indian Languages to enable translation and large language models, with priority given to low-resource languages, the statement said.

This effort will foster social inclusion, improve government service delivery, and spur innovation using large language models, Generative AI, cognitive systems, and translation models.

Furthermore, ‘India AI’ and Meta will strive to enhance accessibility to AI compute resources for researchers, startups, and organizations with limited resources. Knowledge sharing and collaboration in AI & Emerging Technologies will be facilitated through workshops, seminars, conferences, and similar platforms.

Both organisations are dedicated to developing programs and initiatives that enhance AI & Emerging Technologies skills and expertise among researchers, professionals and students in India, contributing to the growth of AI talent in the country.

"Additionally, ‘India AI’ and Meta share a common goal of raising awareness about AI's potential benefits and risks among various stakeholders, including policymakers, businesses, civil society, and the general public. They will also work together to promote responsible AI practices through the collaborative development of comprehensive tools and guidelines," the release said.