UIDAI Partners Sarvam AI To Offer AI Voice, Fraud Detection To Aadhaar

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has partnered with Bengaluru-based GenAI startup Sarvam AI to integrate AI-powered voice interactions and fraud detection into Aadhaar services. 

The collaboration will aim to improve user experience and security while ensuring wider accessibility through multilingual support.

Under this partnership, Sarvam AI will deploy AI-driven voice based interactions for Aadhaar related services. This will enable real-time feedback from Aadhaar users on their enrolment and update experiences, including any instances of overcharging.

The AI system will provide real time fraud detection alerts during authentication requests, enhancing security for Aadhaar number holders.

Notably, the system will support 10 languages such as Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, and Malayalam. More languages will be added in the future.

Further, Sarvam AI’s GenAI stack will be hosted on-premise within UIDAI’s infrastructure, ensuring that no data leaves the UIDAI environment. However, the agreement is initially valid for one year, with a potential extension for another year.

This partnership aligns with UIDAI’s ongoing efforts to enhance Aadhaar services through technology-driven innovation. The GenAI solution was developed under UIDAI’s volunteer policy, with Sarvam AI experts collaborating with UIDAI’s Technology Centre in Bengaluru.

“GenAI is the next step in UIDAI’s journey as a technology pioneer, reinforcing our commitment to ease of living,” said Bhuvnesh Kumar, CEO, UIDAI.

On the same day, Sarvam AI announced the launch of Sarvam Labs, a research initiative in the Bay Area, San Francisco. The lab will focus on foundational AI research for Indic languages.

This comes as the startup is planning to submit a proposal to the electronics and IT ministry (MeitY) to build an indigenous AI foundational model under the IndiaAI Mission.

Founded in 2023 by Pratyush Kumar and Vivek Raghavan, Sarvam AI has raised $41 Mn (around INR 342 Cr) in its Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, in participation with Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures, in December 2023. 

Since then, the startup has launched small language models (SLMs). 

Earlier, the startup claimed to have launched India’s first open source foundational SLM, Sarvam 2B, focussed on Indic languages. The startup claims that it is trained with 4 Tn tokens and performs better than Meta’s Llama in Indian language. 

Prior to that, Sarvam AI launched Shuka 1.0, which it said was India’s first open source audioLM, which can mimic or continue the audio input given – be it a musical beat or a particular language. However, it was an extension on the Llama 8B model.