Tech Mahindra, an IT services and consulting company, announced a partnership with Indonesian telecommunications firm Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison to create an artificial intelligence (AI) model aimed at preserving Indonesia’s national language.
Tech Mahindra is a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business reengineering services. As a part of the Mahindra Group, the company offers innovative solutions in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Tech Mahindra serves clients across industries, including telecommunications, healthcare, and banking, helping them navigate the complexities of the digital age.
Indosat Ooredoo is a leading telecommunications company in Indonesia, offering a wide range of services, including mobile telephony, broadband internet, and digital solutions. As part of the global Ooredoo Group, Indosat Ooredoo is committed to providing high-quality, reliable services to its customers. The company plays a vital role in connecting people and businesses across Indonesia, driving economic growth and social development.
The AI model, named ‘Garuda,’ will be developed to safeguard Bahasa Indonesia, the country’s official language, as well as its local dialects. Garuda will be built using 16 billion original Bahasa tokens, offering 1.2 billion parameters to enhance the model’s comprehension of the language. Built on the foundation of Tech Mahindra’s proprietary LLM ‘Project Indus’, Garuda will employ an approach wherein data in the Indonesian language will be collected and curated by Tech Mahindra.
This data will undergo pre-training and be subsequently launched as a conversational model tailored for Indosat. As per the announcement, Garuda aims to empower Indosat’s clientele with a range of applications, spanning customer support, experience enhancement, and content generation. These applications will cater to various sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce, rural education, banking and finance, agriculture, and telecommunications.
Harshvendra Soin, President of Tech Mahindra’s Asia Pacific and Japan Business, highlighted the growth of the LLM market, predicting it will reach 40.8 billion USD by 2029. He emphasized the significance of LLMs like Garuda and Indus, which facilitate online communication in local languages, opening up new digital opportunities for individuals and businesses. This announcement was made during the MWC 2024 in Barcelona, which is taking place from February 26-29.
