MeitY to merge ChatGPT with WhatsApp to help farmers know govt schemes

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is reportedly working on a WhatsApp chatbot powered by ChatGPT to help farmers in India learn about various government schemes. As per The Indian Express, a small team at MeitY called Bhashini is testing the WhatsApp chatbot powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT. For those who are not aware, ChatGPT is a chatbot that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver answers to difficult queries in a conversational (and simple) way. Microsoft recently announced that it would integrate the underlying ChatGPT technology into its Edge browser and Bing search to enable users to get results and material online with the help of AI.

The new report notes that the WhatsApp chatbot powered by ChatGPT will allow users to submit a question via voice notes. This will help several farmers in India who may not be familiar with smartphone typing. Interestingly, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned a similar update. He said that Indian farmers could use a GPT interface to access an obscure government program over the Internet.

The report states that Nadella was shown a model of the WhatsApp chatbot powered by ChatGPT. However, the release of the WhatsApp chatbot may take time as ChatGPT currently relies on English input, and local language support is limited. An official told the publication that it is pertinent to have large data sets of the various local languages spoken in India on which the model can be trained.

The WhatsApp chatbot powered by ChatGPT reportedly supports 12 languages, including Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Assamese and Odia. Later, support for more languages will be added.

India's central and state governments have worked with WhatsApp several times to launch dedicated chatbots. Their MyGov WhatsApp chatbot is one of the most widely used chatbots and offers many services.