Google Unveils Plans to Back 1,000 Languages

Google is expanding its language portfolio by building an AI language model that supports the world’s 1000 most spoken languages. 

The tech giant noted that more than 7000 languages are spoken in the world but only a few are represented online today.

Google’s 1,000 Languages Initiative aligns with its objective to develop an AI model that will support the 1,000 languages. 

As part of this initiative, the company has designed a Universal Speech Model (USM) that has been trained in over 400 languages. 

Google also unveiled a partnership with communities across the world to source representative speech data.

“…traditional approaches to training language models on text from the web fail to capture the diversity of how we communicate globally,” Google’s senior VP Jeff Dean wrote in a blog post. 

"This has historically been an obstacle in the pursuit of our mission to make the world’s information universally accessible and useful," Dean noted.

He added: "That’s why today we’re announcing the 1,000 Languages Initiative, an ambitious commitment to build an AI model that will support the 1,000 most spoken languages, bringing greater inclusion to billions of people in marginalized communities all around the world."