Two government-backed startups release sovereign AI models that can run in airgapped environment

India AI Mission-backed startups Soket AI and ZenteiQ unveiled sovereign, offline models for secure use in coding, maths, science and research.

Two startups backed by the government’s India AI Mission - Soket AI and ZenteiQ - on Tuesday released their sovereign AI models that can work in air-gapped environments, meaning systems fully cut off from the internet and outside networks. The models were unveiled at a press briefing in New Delhi in the presence of IT Ministry secretary S Krishnan and India AI Mission COO Sudeep Shrivastava.

Soket AI launched EKA-1, a 26.3 billion parameter model built for maths and coding. It was trained on about 7.5 trillion tokens covering all 22 scheduled Indian languages and English. ZenteiQ released two open-source models, Dhīr 2B and Dhīr 5B. These are multilingual assistants that support English and 10 Indian languages. They are designed for secure, on-premise and offline use in critical sectors.

ZenteiQ’s Sashikumar Ganesan explained the difference of airgapped systems from popular chatbots. With a service like ChatGPT, he said, the “inferencing”, the step where the model produces an answer, happens in a server at a remote location. In an air-gapped setup, it happens locally.

“No data will go outside,” he said, adding that the model needs no network connection. It can also run on a mobile phone with at least 6 GB of memory. He named defence and cybersecurity as possible users.

Krishnan said smaller models have many uses, including cybersecurity, and can be deployed in air-gapped environments. He said the two models have different strengths - Soket’s is aimed at maths and coding, while ZenteiQ’s is aimed at science and research.

Ganesan said ZenteiQ trained on Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) because of the scarcity of GPUs. He said TPUs are not inferior to GPUs, and that getting GPUs would have meant waiting another three to four months

Soket founder Abhishek Upperwal said safeguards are in place, including protections against content on suicide and self-harm.

I am a technology policy reporter with the National Political Bureau at Hindustan Times, based in New Delhi. I cover digital policy and the intersection of technology and society, focusing mainly on what's happening in India. My beat often involves tracking platform regulation, privacy, internet curbs, and the real-world impact of digital rules, among other things. Can usually be found reading government notifications so that you don't have to. I cover three key ministries: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Ministry of Communications, and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). I am originally from New Delhi and a graduate of the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. Over the past nine years, I have worked across television, digital and print media with The Secretariat, CNN-News18, Tiranga TV, Interesting Engineering, and now Hindustan Times. Although I am not on X, I can be reached at sejal.sharma@hindustantimes.com for tips, a chat or book recommendations. I respond fast, usually within a couple of hours. Outside of work, I enjoy playing badminton and driving my car. I am a firm believer that every trip — work or leisure — deserves a fridge magnet.Read More