On April 24 and 25, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up named GUVI successfully attempted a Guinness World Record. Along with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), they hosted the AI for India initiative to upskill Indians in Python programming. As many as 1,12,314 people participated in it, thus setting a Guinness World Record for the ‘Most numbers of users to take a programming lesson in 24 Hours,’ beating the previous record by 50 times.
The event was aimed at making Indians aware of AI technology and was targetted towards students, IT professionals and anyone interested in coding. "Most people feel that AI is only for those who are experts at programming. But that's not the case. It can be taught to anyone. If you can make it comprehensible, it's easy to learn. One can use it in any field. You can implement it in any domain. That's what the event was about," says S P Balamurugan, Co-Founder and CEO, GUVI.
He adds, "Application of AI is inevitable in all domains. Be it Engineering or Arts or Sports, AI plays a vital role. Understanding and learning AI will unleash enormous possibilities and will enable the learners to apply it across their domain. Though India has many software engineers, our application and contribution to AI are still in its nascent state."
As part of the event, around 1.43 lakh users also took part in the online training session to build a Face Recognition App. This was conducted in association with BUDDI.AI, a clinical and revenue cycle automation platform. The event had participants from various sections of society such as school kids, college graduates, job seekers and experienced IT and Non-IT professionals. A participation certificate was issued for all the learners who completed the lessons.
"The host of the workshop taught them Python programming and guided them on how to build a facial recognition app from scratch. Unlike regular IT workshops, the medium of instruction was in three vernacular languages, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and, of course, English. The vernacular approach is one of the unique features of GUVI that sets us apart from our competitors. The participants picked up the slot and language of their convenience," explains Balamurugan.
It began with the basics of programming and then the participants were taught how the facial recognition app works. Explaining how they managed to get so many participants on board, Balamurugan says, "With the help of AICTE, we made students aware of the opportunity and we also managed to reach a lot of people who had come to us for previous programmes." Balamurugan added that the initiative was a tribute to GUVI's late co-founder Sridevi Arunprakash, who had a vision to ensure AI reaches every corner of India.
