THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a unique experiment, a govt department launched a crowd-sourced training for an artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot to disseminate and popularize information about schemes meant for tribal youth among the target beneficiaries.
Unnathi, under the SC,ST development department, created “Vasu”, a Malayalam-speaking chatbot designed to provide easy access to information about govt schemes for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities. Vasu, with the persona of a friendly cat, uses AI technology to understand and respond to questions about various SC,ST welfare schemes. This virtual assistant aims to bridge the information gap and empower SC,ST individuals to make informed decisions about their opportunities and benefits.
“The idea of such a chatbot occurred during our visits to remote tribal settlements where we found youngsters using smartphones and WhatsApp with ease and raising complaints about lack of proper information on welfare schemes,” said Prasanth N, CEO of Unnathi and special secretary of the department.
It was observed that department officials and promoters, despite their best efforts, were unable to effectively convey to beneficiaries the welfare schemes and higher educational opportunities. There were more intermediaries than facilitators despite years of effort and training.
“In a few weeks, our chatbot will be fully trained and we shall deploy it through WhatsApp interface for the public to use. We hope to cut intermediaries and directly communicate with the beneficiaries with detailed information and application process in plain Malayalam,” Prasanth said.
Vasu, developed in collaboration with Gaude Business and Infrastructure Solutions, a Kerala Startup Mission-accredited company, features backend integration of ChatGPT with Bhashini, a national multilingual translation platform.
Powered by cutting-edge AI, Vasu is in the process of learning about the various govt schemes for tribal youth. As it involves massive training effort, time and resources, Unnathi decided to ‘crowd-source’ Vasu’s training. The chatbot is available for public testing, and user questions will further enhance its knowledge base. Users can access the bot from the home page of Unnathi website (https://unnathikerala.org/). Through crowd-sourcing and public participation, Vasu is expected to learn faster and effectively.
Unnathi, under the SC,ST development department, created “Vasu”, a Malayalam-speaking chatbot designed to provide easy access to information about govt schemes for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities. Vasu, with the persona of a friendly cat, uses AI technology to understand and respond to questions about various SC,ST welfare schemes. This virtual assistant aims to bridge the information gap and empower SC,ST individuals to make informed decisions about their opportunities and benefits.
“The idea of such a chatbot occurred during our visits to remote tribal settlements where we found youngsters using smartphones and WhatsApp with ease and raising complaints about lack of proper information on welfare schemes,” said Prasanth N, CEO of Unnathi and special secretary of the department.
It was observed that department officials and promoters, despite their best efforts, were unable to effectively convey to beneficiaries the welfare schemes and higher educational opportunities. There were more intermediaries than facilitators despite years of effort and training.
“In a few weeks, our chatbot will be fully trained and we shall deploy it through WhatsApp interface for the public to use. We hope to cut intermediaries and directly communicate with the beneficiaries with detailed information and application process in plain Malayalam,” Prasanth said.
Vasu, developed in collaboration with Gaude Business and Infrastructure Solutions, a Kerala Startup Mission-accredited company, features backend integration of ChatGPT with Bhashini, a national multilingual translation platform.
Powered by cutting-edge AI, Vasu is in the process of learning about the various govt schemes for tribal youth. As it involves massive training effort, time and resources, Unnathi decided to ‘crowd-source’ Vasu’s training. The chatbot is available for public testing, and user questions will further enhance its knowledge base. Users can access the bot from the home page of Unnathi website (https://unnathikerala.org/). Through crowd-sourcing and public participation, Vasu is expected to learn faster and effectively.