India’s homegrown AI startup Sarvam has launched its newest language model, Sarvam-M. However, right after its launch, the new AI model has been making headlines in the tech community for both good and not-so-good reasons. The model is being praised for its focus on Indian languages, maths, and programming tasks, but it is also facing criticism for not being “good enough.” The initial response to the release was rather underwhelming, with less than 720 downloads within three days.
Criticism coming from Investors
Deedy Das, an investor at Menlo Ventures, slammed Sarvam-M's performance, calling it "embarrassing" and questioning its relevance. He argued that there isn't a significant audience for this incremental work.
Das compared it to an open-source model created by two Korean college students, which got some 200,000 downloads. He also pointed out that more cost-effective and higher-performing models already exist.
Despite the criticism, Sarvam AI stands by its commitment to develop a foundational model and has many more releases planned.
Sarvam has raised $41 million from top investors. As of March, its valuation stood at $111 million, per Tracxn.
The government-backed BharatGen's Param-1 model, which was released on AIKosh last week, also saw a similar fate; it has only seen a paltry 12 downloads. This further emphasizes the difficulties Indian AI start-ups have been facing in getting their products to stick.
