Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to develop a multilingual Large Language Model (LLM) platform tailored for local government use. The platform aims to enhance cross-municipal processes such as marketing, communication, and customer service by providing native support for at least three South African vernacular languages alongside English. It seeks to enable secure data ingestion, processing, and management, leveraging AI/ML models for diverse media types, and ensuring continuous improvement, customization, and integration with existing security and data sources.

Scope

The scope of work includes:

• Design, development, and deployment of a cloud-based, customizable multilingual LLM platform.
• Support for at least three South African vernacular languages and English.
• Provision of mechanisms for data ingestion, processing, and secure management compliant with data governance standards.
• Development of data pipelines tailored to municipal content and requirements.
• Utilization of Gen-AI and ML models across various media formats (text, documents, audio, images, video).
• Features for continuous model adaptation and customization for specific municipal use cases.
• Implementation of role-based access control, security measures, and audit trails for model explainability and data protection.
• Integration capabilities with social media, news agencies, and other data sources.
• Provision of technical and user training for SALGA staff and municipal teams.

Technical Requirements

• Use of modern frameworks (post-2019 technology stack).
• Development and maintenance of custom AI/ML models for at least three vernacular languages.
• Infrastructure based on AWS, with interoperability for third-party platform integration.
• Web-based and mobile user interfaces supporting multilingual capabilities.
• Secure data handling, role-based access, and audit trail functionalities.
• Mechanisms for continuous model improvement and adaptation.
• Integration with identified data sources such as social media and news outlets.
• Provision of training on platform use and model incremental training.

Skills Requirements

• Proven experience in building and deploying custom AI/ML models, especially for vernacular languages.
• Expertise in modern AI/ML frameworks and post-2019 technology stacks.
• Experience working within South African or similar contexts, utilizing open-source and AWS proprietary solutions.
• Post-graduate expertise in AI/ML development environments.
• Capability to develop user-friendly web and mobile interfaces with multilingual support.
• Knowledge of data security, governance standards, and compliance requirements.
• Ability to provide technical training and support for platform users and administrators.