Current Affairs: Passage of the Day - 28 May 2024 | Current Affairs & General Knowledge - CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

The Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy (FIDE), which is the genesis co-author of the Beckn Protocol, that powers ecommerce networks like the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), has unveiled a multi-network AI agent that can carry out commercial transactions on the user's behalf.
The AI agent, Beckn Generative Pre-trained Transformer or BecknGPT, is an open-source demonstration app over Open AI’s ChatGPT.
“The combination of Beckn protocol and AI can unlock a whole new world of possibilities,” Sujith Nair, co-creator of the Beckn Protocol, told ET. “An AI and Beckn-aware open network digital public infrastructure can accelerate innovations that remove friction of digital access and natural language barriers, making ecommerce democratic and accessible to a wider population including small businesses."
FIDE, formerly Beckn Foundation, is the genesis co-author of the Beckn Protocol.
At a recent Beckn community meetup, Ravi Prakash, co-creator of Beckn Protocol, and Mayur Virendra, head of technology strategy and innovation at FIDE, demonstrated how a Beckn-enabled AI chatbot could perform an entire exchange—from initiation to execution of an ecommerce order—on an open network.
The AI agent could also perform inter-network transactions, seamlessly switching between multiple open networks, (for example, from a retail network to an open energy network) using Beckn’s inherent interoperability.
At the Beckn Bengaluru Meetup 1.0, Virendra entered a query for personal finance books in the chatbot. ‘Talking to open.network.becknprotocol.io’ read the interface as BecknGPT looked for options on personal finance books and returned with three books that could be purchased. On selecting the desired book, one entered the name and address, upon which a cash-on-delivery order was placed for the book.
A similar query on charging stations gave options of all the nearest charging stations one could visit during the demo.
Nair said this is an effort by FIDE and a few members of Beckn Open Collective, the open community of Beckn, to let developers imagine many more such possibilities with Beckn and AI.
“Networks can be based on healthcare, retail, agriculture, EV charging or education but one single AI agent acting as a buyer app can automatically know which network to look for,” he said.
Prakash said that for the demo, FIDE set up a dummy network simulating ONDC.
“BecknGPT acts like how a buyer app acts on ONDC,” Prakash said. Apps like Paytm, pincode and magicpin are customer-facing apps, which act as buyer apps on ONDC. Seller apps are merchant-facing apps where vendors can be onboarded. Prakash explained that it is a chat-based interface where the AI agent has been configured to understand Beckn.
“The AI agent could find networks built on Beckn Protocol like ONDC and the Unified Energy Interface,” he said.
So, when it did a search for books, it fired the query on a ONDC-like network, which was broadcast to multiple seller platforms. The sellers on these seller platforms gave back a response on relevant options. This, in turn, was relayed to the user.
Prakash clarified that this was not a product launch and that developers can build on this. He said that this is a one-of-a-kind AI assistant that can search through product catalogues on multiple networks.
[Excerpt from Economic Times “FIDE Unveils BecknGPT, an AI Agent Combining ChatGPT and Beckn Protocol” Dated 28/05/24]

Q1: What is BecknGPT?
(a) A new e-commerce platform
(b) An AI agent for handling business deals autonomously
(c) A social media application
(d) A digital marketing tool

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Q2: What standard does BecknGPT's technology rely on?
(a) HTTP
(b) SMTP
(c) Beckn protocol
(d) FTP

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Q3: What is one of the main goals of BecknGPT in the context of e-commerce?
(a) To compete with social media platforms
(b) To enhance digital transactions by reducing barriers and language issues
(c) To promote traditional retail over digital commerce
(d) To create exclusive digital networks

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Q4: What is the Beckn Protocol?
(a) A proprietary communication standard for e-commerce
(b) A closed, centralized standard for digital transactions
(c) An open, decentralized standard for interoperability between digital sites and apps
(d) A social networking protocol

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Q5: Which organization oversees the development and ensures the core values of the Beckn Protocol?
(a) OpenAI
(b) FIDE
(c) Beckn Foundation
(d) ONDC

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