Google added 110 new languages to its service Google Translate using its PaLM 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) model. This update includes languages spoken by more than 614 million people, from communities with more than 100 million speakers to small indigenous communities.
The company seeks to facilitate the connection between people and expressed its intention to “breaking down language barriers” by applying its latest AI technologies in Google Translate. In 2022, it added 24 languages to its translator using technology Zero-Shot Machine Translation and announced its goal of reaching 1,000 languages to support the most spoken languages in the world.
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To achieve this expansion of 110 new languages, Google used the PaLM 2 large language model (MML), which allowed an unprecedented expansion in its translator. This AI model more efficiently learns closely related languages.
Among the new languages are Cantonese, Afar (spoken in Ethiopia), and Manx (Isle of Man Celtic). Also added were Punjabi (Shahmukhi), the Mandinka Nko language of West Africa, Tamazight (Amazigh) of North Africa, and tok pisin from Papua New Guinea. Approximately A quarter of new languages come from Africa, including Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda and Wolof.
With this expansion, Google Translate will be able to translate for 8% of the world’s population, covering languages with large numbers of speakers and small indigenous communities, as well as languages in the process of revitalization. Google prioritized the most used varieties of each language to maximize the reach of translations.
Google will continue to collaborate with expert linguists and native speakers to continue expanding its translation capabilities and support more language varieties and spelling conventions in the future.
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*This content was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The information was provided and reviewed by a journalist to ensure its accuracy. The content was not generated automatically.
