Taimoor Hassan developed Qalb, the world’s largest Urdu Large Language Model (LLM), as a second-year graduate student in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.
The model was designed exclusively for the Urdu language and is similar to ChatGPT but made for Pakistan, his home country.
Qalb's literal meaning is heart in Arabic and his language Urdu. The model was created, because there was no foundation model in the Urdu language.
"I think everything starts from the core of the heart," Hassan said. "So, that's why it was the nicest name that I found in my brain. I thought this was true and good to be chosen, as this will be the foundation of AI for the people."
He shared that, initially, resources were a bit of a challenge. Eventually, Hassan developed a partnership with a few startups, which lent him the open source frameworks to make the foundation model.
Since his model's release, there have been 4,000 developer downloads, hundreds of feedback and hundreds of independent reports published.
Growing up in Pakistan, Hassan shared that the area was popular for building engineers, specifically in computer science.
"The technology was there, and the people who were doing good in computer science in Silicon Valley, which were connected to the Pakistani region, were very popular there in Pakistan, as well," Hassan said. "The thing that took me back was that the people who were really popular back then were just tech gurus and tech guys but were taken as huge idols."
Hassan described himself as a hustler and a risk-taker. Receiving his first computer at around eight years old, Hassan shared that he completely delved into his interest, and it resonated with him. He created his first website at 11, made a social network for his family at 12 and built Pakistan's third largest advertisement technique book at 14.
Hassan won the Microsoft Imagine Cup National Finals in 2021, and he has sold 13 Microsoft startups.
"I think I'm pretty much made for the computer," Hassan said. "I love it from the core."
He has recently received an official recognition letter from the AI and Innovation minister of Pakistan, which he considered unexpected.
"So I did this [LLM], and I wrote three different LinkedIn posts on it," Hassan said. "I did this work for the community out of my pocket, and I spent around $7,000 just for the research and for giving back. I had no expectations. I just went all in with my buddies and put all my resources into it to pin a flag of being first and making something better and foundational for 250 million people."
Explaining that computer science is broad, he shared that his passion leans more toward the software side.
While computer science and work takes up the majority of his time, he enjoys hanging out with friends, talking about the market and playing badminton.
He also enjoys listening to Desi Hip Hop, specifically Sardari Music Gang (SMG), which consists of the artists Farmaan SMG, Baggh-E SMG and BIG KAY SMG.
While he has had several speaking opportunities, he shared that that side of his recognition remains at arms length.
"I normally decline each and every single one, because it's not about me. It's about the 400 to 500 people sitting in front of me," Hassan said. "If I somehow move their path from whatever the passion was, it's a burden on me. If someone gets something from you and then they see your life and see that you're a simple human being doing wrong stuff and right stuff and everything in it, that is kind of a burden on me as well."
Being celebrated in his home country while studying abroad has made Hassan happy, especially seeing how proud he has made his family.
"The day I was on the news channel, my family did a video call," Hassan said. "They were like 18 people on the call, and everyone was eating sweets, and that was pretty big for me. This is the thing you wanna see. This is the actual success for me. Going to the media and stuff is part of it, obviously, but if your family is happy, if your whole neighborhood is happy, everyone is proudly saying your name back there. That's pretty big for me."
Now, since receiving national recognition, Hassan expressed that there is an added responsibility to his work.
"You start realizing that you have to be more consistent in your life, and whatever is done, it's done, Hassan said. "The next day is a new day, and you have to make something new. Make something bigger than this. Make something better than before. It's my responsibility to keep up the name of the family, for the nation for the people around me as well, because their name is at stake along with mine."
Hassan shared that although this was a notable milestone in his life, his dream is to create a unicorn company, which is a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion.
"First step would be creating something big of cause: some necessity tool for the people or necessary product for the people," Hassan said. "The thing I really believe in is giving to humanity without any exceptions, without borders, without causes, without anything getting back to you."
Hassan expressed that coming to Auburn University, where he felt heard and seen, helped propel his success.
"Coming here, in the U.S., getting into a whole new world, whole new academic system, teachers backing you up, giving you more resources, helping you a lot, replying to the emails pretty quick, it's a very good thing," Hassan said. "And that thing, this academia, helped me a lot in making this thing, and I think now a part of it is done. This will help me a lot in the future studies as well, in my research and maybe creating a product, so it gave me a very good experience sitting in a research university backed by multimillion dollar research programs and gave me good insight."
To his success at Auburn, he credited several outlets for helping with research, including the Lowder Center StartUp Studio where he works as an app developer and professors like Dr. Ali Asim, executive director of the Biggio Center.
For students working toward their degrees and uncertain about what comes next, Hassan emphasized the importance of consistency and trusting the process.
"Stick with it, go with it, just do what you're doing and maybe you'll pivot out to something else one day," Hassan said. "Nobody knows, but it will be something that you experienced and learned the hard way, but that will get you somewhere someday. I'm pretty confident on that. You'll get whatever you want. It's just that you have to be consistent and pick your thing, whatever you're doing and keep doing it."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
