Google introduces AI-powered 'Sounds of India' app

Google on Wednesday said it is offering a new AI-powered web app called Sounds of India that will allow you to sing Jana Gana Mana into your phone, karaoke-style and it transforms your voice into one of three traditional Indian instruments.

The Sounds of India experiment was made possible by machine learning models built with Google's ‘TensorFlow' platform to convert sounds into musical instruments (Bansuri, Shehnai and Sarangi).

"The day culminated in a rendition of the national anthem, combining many of the voices that Indians submitted through the app," said Manish Gupta, Research Director, Google Research India.

Google collaborated with Prasar Bharati and Virtual Bharat to offer this app.

The Search giant said it is working with partners to bring the benefits of AI to many more Indians in years to come.

The company started Google Research India, an AI lab based in Bengaluru, to advance AI research and apply AI in solving some of India's biggest challenges.

"We reinforced that commitment last month, announcing that leveraging technology and AI for social good would be one of the four focus areas for our $10 billion Google for India Digitization Fund," Gupta said in a blog post on Tuesday.

In healthcare, Google is building on its efforts to apply AI in screening for the eye disease diabetic retinopathy, working with partners like Aravind Eye Hospital and Sankara Nethralaya.

"Our flood forecasting tools are already being used to send alerts to hundreds of millions of people, and we're working on computer vision techniques that can analyze satellite imagery to assist with restoring water bodies and protecting forest cover," Google said.

Nonprofit ARMMAN and a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras are collaborating on a project to predict the risk of expectant mothers dropping out of healthcare programmes, while other projects aim to reduce the risk of HIV/Aids, minimize human-wildlife conflict, and improve water release from dams.

"With a grant from Google.org's AI Impact Challenge—and support from our Launchpad Accelerator— Wadhwani AI has started to roll out their solution to detect bollworm, helping farmers monitor pests, take action, and improve crop yield," Google said.