India’s First AI Multimodal Hanooman Set to Launch

Seetha Mahalaxmi Healthcare (SML), in partnership with IIT-Bombay, has unveiled ‘Hanooman’, a series of Indic AI models with multimodal capabilities at the NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum in Mumbai.

Named after the revered Hindu deity Hanooman, Hanooman embodies the ethos of a responsible power, as explained by Vishnu Vardhan, the founder of SML and Vizzhy, during an exclusive interview with AIM. Vardhan highlighted that Hanuman’s character serves as an ethical guide for the model, emphasizing its commitment to serving the greater good.

The inaugural release of the Hanooman series will include four open-source models with varying parameters: 1.5 billion, 7 billion, 13 billion, and 40 billion. Vardhan anticipates their release by the end of this month, pending rigorous testing by researchers, academicians, and professors involved in the project.

Hanooman’s multimodal capabilities enable it to communicate proficiently in 11 languages, with plans to expand to all 22 official languages of India in the future. Vardhan stressed that unlike ChatGPT, Hanooman aims to transcend mere conversational prowess by addressing specific use cases tailored to sectors like healthcare and education.

One such application involves assisting doctors by summarizing their conversations using automatic speech summarization technology. Additionally, Hanooman seeks to support rural students with homework, particularly those lacking parental assistance, thereby tackling educational barriers prevalent in India.

Looking ahead, SML intends to develop closed-source models for enterprise clients, focusing on cost-effective diagnostic solutions. Contrary to media speculation, Hanooman’s development is solely driven by SML, with no external funding raised thus far.

Acknowledging the financial commitment required, Vardhan drew inspiration from ISRO’s achievements and expressed gratitude for support from Indian hardware players and cloud service providers. He disclosed plans to scale up GPU infrastructure to meet growing demand, with several state governments and enterprises expressing interest in adopting Hanooman.

In an update, it was clarified that Hanooman is not associated with the BharatGPT initiative but is an independent project led by SML, as confirmed by Ganesh Ramakrishnan, head of BharatGPT.

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