IIT-Bombay teams up with Meta, NLSIU for AI-based project

Dr Pushpak Bhattacharya, IIT-B

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) and the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, have teamed up with Meta to explore the digital transformation of India's consumer grievance redressal system through Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). Dr Pushpak Bhattacharya of the Computer Science and Engineering Department, who is leading the project for IIT-B, said the technology will ease the working of consumer courts.

Meta is an industry leader in GenAI research and is partnering to build a robust AI ecosystem in India. This initiative aims to evaluate the applicability of large language models (LLMs) in developing public solutions to enhance efficiency. According to Meta, the project is integral to its commitment to cultivating a responsible ecosystem for AI innovation and addressing challenges in the real world.

To be executed in partnership with IIT-B, the project is being conducted in collaboration with the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) as a knowledgeable partner. "Our collective efforts seek to leverage cutting-edge technology and expertise to optimise India's consumer grievance redressal processes, contributing to a more streamlined and effective system," said Bhattacharya, a well-known natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) expert.

Meta said in a statement, "The research initiative will explore the feasibility of leveraging Llama2 in creating and evaluating a proof of concept of a citizen-centric chatbot and a decision-assist tool in the area of consumer law."

‘The first in India'

Dr Bhattacharya told mid-day, "This project will answer questions regarding consumer grievances and data extraction and make operations more efficient. While conventional AI agents have been in existence for a long time globally, this project is the first of its kind in India."

He added, "We are expected to submit an intermediate proof of concept in the next six months, and the final project is to be completed in a year's time. It is a challenging task made interesting by the kind of collaboration we have. Leveraging our extensive and profound expertise in NLP, ML, and LLMs, we are enthusiastic about collaborating with Meta, NLSIU, and DoCA to address the highly impactful challenge of question-answering and search within the consumer law domain."

NLSIU and IIT-B will release a white paper explaining their risk mitigation approaches and how responsible design principles have been deployed at every layer of the stack.