Microsoft’s Chatbot Is A Boon To Handloom Weavers

Microsoft’s AI chatbot ‘Ruuh’ is making waves in India. According to Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella ‘Ruuh’ has helped handloom weavers in rural communities create new economic opportunity by generating design patterns, inputting pictures and colours with the help of neural networks. A chatbot is an interactive agent or Artificial Conversational Entity which uses AI to conduct a conversation via auditory or textual methods. Ruuh describes itself as a  "desi AI who never stops talking." Only users in India can interact with Ruuh which speaks only in English. Satya Nadella stated that ‘Ruuh’ has been built entirely by the research team in India and the technology is changing the lives of handloom weavers in India. He said that his team was amazed to see how Ruuh has helped handloom weavers in rural communities create new economic opportunity by generating design patterns, inputting pictures and colours with the help of neural networks. Nadella wrote about this on LinkedIn in a post titled “The people and projects that inspired me in 2017.” He added that by creating new designs, the weavers were able to grow their markets and generate new revenue, helping to preserve that ancient art form and carry on a family business that spans generations. Microsoft launched its latest AI chatbot Ruuh in February this year. According to a Facebook page for Ruuh, it’s  interests include "Chatting, Bollywood, Music, Humour, Travel & Browsing Internet."