Zoho building its own AI model to takes on industry leader OpenAI and Google

Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) giant Zoho is set to compete with industry leaders OpenAI and Google as it embarks on a new project to develop its own large language model (LLM). Under the guidance of founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu, Zoho's R&D team in India is working diligently on this ambitious undertaking.

Zoho's decision to build its own LLM, akin to OpenAI's GPT and Google's PaLM 2 models, comes in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding comments made by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He said that it would be "hopeless" for an Indian startup with $10 million in funding to work on a foundational LLM, sparking a spirited response from Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, who saw it as a challenge.

"We have been working on artificial intelligence for a decade now," shared Praval Singh, Zoho's Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience, during an event in Delhi on June 14.

Singh further explained that Zoho has already integrated ChatGPT, one of OpenAI's products, into 13 of their applications, demonstrating their dedication to meeting customer demands.

While Zoho has successfully integrated ChatGPT in the short term, the company's vision extends beyond mere integration. They are actively working on proprietary large language models that will possess the ability to summarize, paraphrase, and adapt to new tasks. However, Singh clarified that no specific timeline has been set for the completion of this ambitious project.

Responding to the controversy sparked by Altman's comments, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar voiced his disagreement, emphasizing that Altman's remarks do not represent the final word on India's AI aspirations. He stressed that there will inevitably be areas of disagreement between Altman and other stakeholders, citing the immense popularity of Zoho's ChatGPT chatbot as evidence of India's prowess in the AI domain.

With Zoho's bold move into the world of large language models, the competition in the AI landscape is set to intensify. As the project continues to unfold under the leadership of Sridhar Vembu, industry observers eagerly await the development of Zoho's proprietary LLM and its potential impact on the market.

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