Sarvam Unveils New Speech AI Model With 11 Indian Languages Support

GenAI startup Sarvam AI, recently selected by the Centre to build India’s first homegrown LLM, has unveiled a new speech AI model that supports 11 Indian languages, including Punjabi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil and Bangla, among others.

The Bengaluru-based startup took to X to announce Bulbul V2.

‘Meet the all-new Bulbul…Natural, familiar speech in 11 Indian languages, with authentic accents that sound just like India,” the X post read. 

Sarvam AI claims that the model has fast performance and a voice that doesn’t appear robotic but real. It further says that the model will also offer a custom voice option for brands to represent their distinctive identity. 

“From lower latency and India-first pricing to wider language, Bulbul sets a new benchmark for Speech AI in India,” it said in the post. 

Notably, Blubul V1 had six voices to suit different needs in multiple languages helped by code-mixing, incorporating regional nuances and domain-specific intelligence. 

The text to speech model boasts of enhancing customer interactions and delivering engaging content. 

The central government picked Sarvam AI to build India’s first homegrown sovereign large language model under the IndiaAI Mission.

Sarvam last month said in a statement that it will receive a dedicated compute infrastructure to build the model from scratch.

The LLM will focus on reasoning, support voice-based tasks and work fluently across Indian languages. It is being designed for secure, population-scale use. The model will be fully developed, deployed and optimised within the country, using local talent and infrastructure.

Founded in 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam AI is a full-stack GenAI platform that develops small and large language models. Some of its users are Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Urban Company, NITI Aayog, and the Ministry of Skill Development among its users. 

Besides Sarvam AI, Soket AI Labs, Gnani.ai and Gan.ai may get incentives for building frontier AI models under the IndiaAI Mission as the government is looking to finalise the “first set” of proposals for building indigenous foundational AI models. 

Under the IndiaAI mission, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has also reportedly shortlisted seven companies, including Amazon Web Service (AWS), Oracle and Google Cloud for the second round of graphics processing units (GPU) tenders. 

Seven companies that have been shortlisted in the second round are Sify Digital Services, Netmagic IT Services, Vensysco Technologies, Cyfuture India, Yotta Data Services, Locuz Enterprise Solutions and Ishan Infotech, ET reported.

The Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission in March last year with an allocation of INR 10,372 Cr in the next five years to foster innovation in the homegrown AI ecosystem. 

It includes initiatives such as IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI.