Mysuru: The city is set to witness the launch of the country’s first full-length AI-assisted Kannada non-fiction book on Friday. The Kannada translation of ‘My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician’, authored by historian Vikram Sampath will be released by Mysore MP Yaduveer Wadiyar.The Kannada edition marks a pioneering milestone in Indian publishing as the first full-length book in the country to be translated using Bengaluru-based start-up’s TransLit technology, with only minimal human intervention in editing and proofreading.The book chronicles the extraordinary life of Gauhar Jaan of Kolkata (1873-1930), the legendary Hindustani classical musician who became the first woman artist in the Indian subcontinent to record her voice on the gramophone in 1902. Despite attaining national and international fame during her career, Gauhar Jaan experienced severe hardships in her later years. Recognising her stature and plight, Mysuru Maharaja Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar invited her to Mysuru as a state guest and provided her accommodation at a cottage named ‘Dil Khush’ in Chamundi Vihara. Through extensive archival research and musicological analysis, the biography documents both the triumphs and struggles that shaped her remarkable journey.The event also holds historical significance for the city, where Gauhar Jaan spent the final phase of her life and passed away at KR Hospital on Jan 17, 1930.According to Vikram Sampath, the translation achieved nearly 80% accuracy before human refinement. He noted that while a conventional human translation of such a book would have required nearly six months, the AI-assisted process enabled completion within three to four weeks. Sampath further stated that the final Kannada version has successfully retained the original tone, style and literary quality of the work. “It is as though I wrote it in Kannada myself,” he said.
