Teaching AI to Speak our Language: A Showcase of Global Efforts to Bridge the ‘Last Mile’ of AI Inclusion for Local Impact
CLEAR Global
Session 225
Today’s AI technologies excel in English and only a few other major languages, threatening to leave as many as 4 billion people – whose native tongues, cultures and local conditions are under-represented – behind and facing unreliable, inaccurate, and potentially harmful systems. While centralized AI governance debates advance rapidly, local projects and innovators are doing the hard work required to bridge this digital language divide when digitizing humanitarian projects and essential services. To highlight the work done locally and chart new pathways for international collaboration around linguistic diversity in AI, this session combines a concrete showcase of 3 ongoing projects to highlight key issues they encounter in working with low-resource language communities to develop, deploy and evaluate responsible AI systems. Showcases will be followed by a fireside-style discussion outlining opportunities for cross-border collaboration, sharing best practices from ongoing coordination efforts (incl. the UNESCO Coalition for Linguistic Diversity in AI), and detailing the roadmap ahead.
-
C2. Information and communication infrastructure
-
C8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
Planned, resourced, and community-led foundational voice, text, and multimedia datasets form a key part of a language-inclusive strategy. Cross-sector partnerships and ethical data governance frameworks ensure communities retain agency over their linguistic and cultural data.
-
Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
-
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all
-
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
-
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
-
Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
-
Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
-
Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
