Ola's first AI chip for India to be ready in two years

Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal on August 15 announced significant advancements in artificial intelligence and technology during the company’s ‘Sankalp 2024’ event in Bengaluru. The event highlighted the integration of Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Mr Aggarwal, into Ola Electric and Ola Consumer (formerly Ola Cabs), along with the deployment of Krutrim’s advanced AI-powered customer service tool.

Mr Aggarwal revealed plans to establish a 1-gigawatt data center by 2028, a significant increase from the current capacity of 20 megawatts. He emphasised that this expansion was part of a larger vision, particularly as the company also aims to launch India’s first homegrown AI chip, developed by Krutrim.

`Bold and ambitious'

"Our goal is to push the boundaries of AI chip performance by 2028. This is a bold and ambitious project, but we are committed to delivering our first AI chip for India by 2026," Mr Aggarwal said. The AI chips, named Bodhi-1 and Bodhi-2, will support over 10 trillion parameters, with Bodhi-2 expected to debut by 2028.

Krutrim has also made strides in the consumer market by launching an Android app for its AI chatbot in May. The chatbot, which entered public beta in February 2024, is designed to compete with major players like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot. It is powered by Krutrim's multilingual large language models (LLM) and supports over 10 Indian languages, with plans to extend this to all 22 official languages by the end of 2024.

Ola announced a rebranding of its ride-hailing division from Ola Cabs to Ola Consumer to broaden its service offerings. This rebranding reflects the company's expansion into a more comprehensive array of consumer services. Additionally, Ola Share, the popular ride-sharing service suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been reintroduced in Bengaluru, with plans to expand to other cities soon.

Mr Aggarwal also showcased Ola’s automated dark stores, small-scale warehouses designed for rapid delivery, where robots will manage the storage and retrieval of goods. These dark stores will be accessible to local Kirana shops and brands on the ONDC network, not just Ola’s platform.

                                                        (By arrangement with livemint.com)