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Journalism of Courage
Language differences have long been a source of both diversity and disagreement in India. Lately, in cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai, there have been many reports about locals insisting travellers, and even residents who are originally from other parts of the country, speak Kannada and Marathi, respectively.
At such a time, a video showing how artificial intelligence–specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT–can bridge this language gap has gone viral.
In the clip, content creator Sajan Mahto demonstrated how ChatGPT’s voice assistant could be used to overcome language barriers in everyday scenarios. The video shows him asking the AI, “Auto guy saying that the fare is Rs 200, I want him to reduce it to Rs 100. I am a student and I cross from here daily. Talk to him nicely, like my bigger brother.”
What followed was a surprisingly smooth negotiation as ChatGPT responded in fluent Kannada, explaining Mahto’s situation to the auto driver. After a brief exchange, the driver, who originally quoted Rs 200, agreed to settle for Rs 120. Mahto accepted with a smile and hopped into the auto-rickshaw.
While the scene appeared authentic, Mahto later clarified that the video was a staged demonstration to showcase how ChatGPT can be used for real-life language translation. “Use ChatGPT for language translation FREE!!” he wrote in his caption. “This is an attempt to educate… This is an act performed not real Autowala.”
Comments flooded in praising the creative use of technology. One user said, “Divided by language, united by Technologiya.” Another user wrote, “Kannada language problem solved for non Kannada people.” And someone humorously pointed out, “Google translator laughing in the corner this thing exist way before ChatGPT.”
This isn’t the only time ChatGPT has sparked online buzz recently. In another instance, an X user going by @infinozz took AI experimentation in a wildly different direction. Claiming he was bored, he used ChatGPT’s new image generation feature to create a fake Bumble profile of a woman. His phone was flooded with matches. He joked that the sheer volume of right swipes and over 2,000 likes sent his phone into “seizure mode”.
