Are Tech Giants Doing Enough for African Language Inclusion?
The tech giant Google announced that 15 more African languages would be added to Voice Search, Gboard talk-to-type, and Translate dictation. The languages included are Chichewa, Hausa, Igbo, Kikuyu, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, South Ndebele, Swati, Tigrinya, Twi, Tswana, Nigerian Pidgin, and Yoruba.
This significant milestone will enable 300 million more Africans to interact with the web using their voices, yet it also sheds light on the massive amount of work needed to close the digital gap between Africa and the rest of the world.
As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies continue to develop and gain traction around the world, they are being integrated into many tools to automate daily tasks, in many cases making people’s lives and work easier. Although the adoption of AI tools is growing in Africa every day, many users cannot access them in their languages yet. If languages like Soga are not included in the development of these tools, hundreds of millions of Africans may not benefit from the limitless opportunities offered by AI.
Vocabulary
tech giant – a very large, powerful, and influential technology company, “Google is a global tech giant that shapes how we use the internet every day.”
milestone – an important event, achievement, or stage in the development of something, “Graduating from university was a major milestone in her life.”
sheds light on – reveals information about something or makes it much easier to understand, “The new study sheds light on the sleeping habits of teenagers.”
digital gap – the social and economic inequality between people who have easy access to the internet and technology and those who do not, “The government is building computer labs in rural areas to help close the digital gap.”
gain traction – to become popular, accepted, or successful over time, “The new clothing brand is starting to gain traction among young buyers.”
integrated – combined or linked together so that two or more things work perfectly as a single unit, “The new maps app is directly integrated into the car’s dashboard system.“
automate – to use machines, computers, or software to do a job automatically instead of using human labor, “Factories use robots to automate the packaging of products.”
adoption – the act of accepting, starting to use, or buying a new method, idea, or technology, “The rapid adoption of electric cars has helped reduce air pollution in the city.”
limitless opportunities – endless, infinite, or unrestricted chances to succeed, learn, or improve, “Learning how to code opens up limitless opportunities in the modern job market.”