IndiaAI, Meta and IIT Jodhpur join to set up Center for Generative AI

IndiaAI has partnered with social media platform Meta to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Generative AI, Shrijan, at IIT Jodhpur, which will promote open-source AI.

Towards this, Meta, in partnership with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), will launch `YuvAI’ for imparting skill and capacity building in AI.

Through `YuvAI’, Shrijan will encourage students and young developers in India to use open-source AI models to solve real-world problems, which will have a positive impact on the lives of the people.

Shrijan will Identify and empower AI innovators and entrepreneurs using open-source AI and through Large Language Models (LLMs). Research will be shared with students via AICTE and through colleges. 

The CoE will engage young developers to deploy open-source LLMs across India and realise their potential through hackathons.

Besides, it will conduct master training workshops for select colleges, data labs, and ITIs on the foundations of LLMs to ignite interest. Student-led startups will be encouraged to experiment with open-source LLMs.

The aim is to impart AI skills to 1 lakh youth developers and entrepreneurs over the next 3 years.

Meta will also provide Rs7.5 crore funding support to the CoE over the three-year period. IndiaAI will provide support to researchers at the CoE. 

Srijan aims to address challenges in education, mobility and healthcare domains, through a collaborative ecosystem in Generative AI.

Emphasising the significance of the partnership of IndiaAI, IIT Jodhpur, AICTE and Meta, S Krishnan, secretary in the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), said partnership with academia is key to creating a robust open-source AI ecosystem, which, in turn, will lead to new research and innovation.

Promotion of open-source AI technology will secure India's position as a leader in technological advancement and economic growth, while ensuring its responsible and ethical deployment, he added.

Open-source AI will help bridge the talent gap and ensure skill development and innovation, so that the youth are equipped to lead the development in emerging technologies, Abhishek Singh, additional secretary, MeitY, added.

Srijan will have an academic research team comprising faculty members, post-doctoral fellows, PhD students as well as graduate students, and administrative staff from IIT Jodhpur. Director of IIT Jodhpur will also be the principal investigator of the project. 

The team will interact with the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya for railways, PGI Chandigarh, AIIMS Jodhpur, and IHBAS Delhi for the various verticals.

The YuvaAI initiative aims to empower 100,000 students and young developers in the 18-30 age group leveraging open-source large language models (LLMs) to address real-world challenges and to build capacity in generative AI skills.