Google's Push for Diversification: The Extended Reach of Google Translate
In a significant move towards enhancing accessibility and inclusivity, Google has recently added South African Sign Language (SASL) to its translation service. This development, announced by Siya Madikane, Google South Africa's communications manager, marks an exciting step forward.
The inclusion of SASL is part of a broader expansion that brings the total number of supported South African languages to nine out of twelve. This expansion also includes the addition of Siswati and Tshivenda, further broadening the platform's reach within the region.
Google's 1,000 Languages Initiative is driving this expansion, aiming to build AI models supporting the world's 1,000 most spoken languages. The technological backbone of this expansion is Google's next-generation language model, PaLM 2. This sophisticated model facilitates more efficient translation and learning of closely related languages, making the process smoother and more accurate.
The latest expansion also added AI-enhanced live translation support in 71 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Korean, and Tamil. This update, developed with linguists and experts, is designed to improve efficiency in translating and learning closely related languages, particularly in noisy environments, facilitating real-time conversations.
PaLM 2 boasts enhanced multilingual, reasoning, and coding capabilities, enabling it to handle the complexities of diverse languages with ease. The inclusion of these new languages represents over 614 million speakers worldwide, potentially opening up translation services to approximately 8% of the global population.
This expansion represents a significant milestone, particularly for African languages, which account for about a quarter of the new additions. In May 2022, Google added 24 languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, including several African languages such as Bambara, Ewe, Krio, Lingala, Luganda, Oromo, Sepedi, Tigrinya, Tsonga, and Twi.
Google partners with expert linguists and native speakers to support more language varieties and spelling conventions. This collaborative approach ensures that the translations are accurate and culturally sensitive, respecting the unique nuances of each language.
Google values language as a key element in communication and understanding. The company is committed to continuing its efforts to expand language support, aiming to make communication more accessible and inclusive on a global scale. This latest expansion is a testament to Google's dedication to fostering cross-cultural understanding and breaking down language barriers.
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