A WhatsApp chatbot called ‘MyGov Corona Helpdesk’, launched by the Indian government to help address queries around the Covid-19 pandemic has crossed the milestone of 30 million users over the last year, the Facebook-owned platform said on Tuesday.
Powered by Haptik’s Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, the official WhatsApp chatbot by the Ministry of Health and MyGov has processed over 45 million conversations on WhatsApp from users across the country with more than 67 million messages having been sent since its launch.
“Since the pandemic first hit our country, one of WhatsApp’s most significant associations has been with the Ministry of Health and with MyGov. With the power of easy-to-use technology citizens gained access to the latest, verified information on Covid-19,” Shivnath Thukral, Director – Public Policy, WhatsApp, said in a statement.
With the determination to flatten the misinformation curve and drive awareness around Covid-19, this API-based helpline was made available to all WhatsApp users for free in English and Hindi, the company said.
“Over the last year, MyGov Corona Helpdesk, an AI-enabled Chatbot has been a path-breaking technological solution that has helped millions of citizens by providing timely updates about the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Abhishek Singh, CEO, MyGov and Digital India.
“The right communication strategy combined with innovative technology has been integral to deal with the pandemic, and it has been one of the endeavours of Digital India and its initiative, MyGov to become the bridge between citizens and government and ensure dissemination of authentic information, curb rumours, myths and misinformation,” Singh added.
In addition to the MyGov helpline, WhatsApp has also enabled more than 16 Covid-19 helplines in 13 other Indian states in English and other regional languages.
Last year in June, the AI enabled ‘MyGov Corona Helpdesk’ bagged two awards under the categories ‘Best Innovation for Covid-19’ — Society Peoples Choice and ‘Covid-19 Overall Winner at the recently held CogX 2020’, which is a prestigious global leadership summit and festival of AI and Emerging Technology held annually in London.
The awards were won by the Technical Partner of MyGov, JioHaptik Technologies Limited.
–IANS
