Reliance Jio, IIT Bombay Working on ‘Bharat GPT,’ Telecom Giant to Launch a TV OS: Report

Telecom giant Reliance Jio is reportedly working on generative AI and plans to launch a ‘Bharat GPT’ programme along the lines of large language model-based AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The company has reportedly partnered up with Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to develop an India-first AI programme. Jio, which now offers products and services across the digital sector, including steaming apps and Internet services, is also said to be working on an operating system for televisions.

According to a report by the Press Trust of India, Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani said Wednesday that the company would bring a ‘Bharat GPT’ programme to market in collaboration with IIT-B. Ambani, however, did not specify a launch timeline for its AI endeavour.

Speaking at IIT Bombay’s annual techfest, Ambani said that the coming years would be defined by generative AI applications. The Jio chairman said that AI would be integrated across the company’s various products and offerings. “We are working very hard to launch AI not only as a vertical inside our organisation, but also horizontally across all our sectors,” the report quoted him as saying.

Additionally, Jio also plans to introduce an operating system for televisions and has been working on the same for a while. A TV OS would be in line with Jio’s set-top box and television apps services. “We have been working on our own OS for a while now for the TVs and we are comprehensively thinking about how to launch it,” Ambani was quoted as saying in the report.

Back in September, Reliance and chip giant Nvidia announced a partnership to build language models, generative AI apps and cloud infrastructure platform for AI development in the South Asian region. “Reliance will create AI applications and services for their 450 million Jio (telecom) customers and provide energy-efficient AI infrastructure to scientists, developers and startups across India,” Nvidia had reportedly said at the time.

Earlier this year, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani had said that the company intended to develop India-specific AI models and AI-powered solutions across domains. Calling artificial intelligence the most exciting frontier of growth for Jio, Ambani had promised “AI to everyone, everywhere.”

In the past year, AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot have exploded in popularity, leading to a glut of AI-driven applications and and investment rush in the sector. Several Indian startups and firms have since worked to develop their own India-focussed AI apps and services.