MeitY to integrate ChatGPT with WhatsApp for farmers

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is reportedly planning to integrate ChatGPT on WhatsApp to make farmers in India aware of various government schemes.

As per a report by The Indian Express, a small MeitY team called Bhashini is currently developing a WhatsApp chatbot using ChatGPT’s data models. It has been designed primarily for use by Indian farmers who may not be familiar with typing on smartphones. To seek information on various government initiatives and similar queries, the chatbot will enable farmers to send a question via voice notes. It will then answer in the form of audio messages.

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

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ChatGPT, the chatbot by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, can be used to ask queries. It is capable of generating human-like replies, allowing natural conversation between the user and the virtual assistant. In January, it reached an estimated 100 million monthly active users, becoming the fastest-growing consumer application, and has clocked over 590 million visits. 

Microsoft, which has invested $10 billion in the AI company, recently demonstrated a new version of its Edge browser with ChatGPT-like features, along with an AI chatbot available in the sidebar. The company has also integrated ChatGPT functions into its Bing search engine.

Google has also announced its own chatbot called Bard. However, parent Alphabet’s shares fell 8% after the new chatbot Bard seemed to have responded inaccurately to a question.