Google has just added no less than 110 new languages, including Amazigh, to its Google Translate service. This addition of new languages is the largest ever made by the American giant’s translation service.
Tamazight can now be easily translated into Latin script and Tifinagh. Google Translate has achieved this major addition with the help of artificial intelligence including Google’s Large Language Model (PaLM 2).
“We’re using AI to expand the range of available languages. Thanks to our large language model PaLM 2, we’re adding 110 new languages to Google Translate, the largest addition ever,” the American giant said.
The linguistic expansion involves 110 languages representing more than 614 million speakers. This will allow approximately 8% of the world’s population to perform translations.
“Some of these languages are major global languages, with over 100 million speakers. Others are spoken by small indigenous communities, and a few have virtually no native speakers but are the subject of revitalization efforts,” Google explained.
Of the total languages added, about a quarter of the new languages are from Africa, making it the largest addition of African languages to date for this translation service.
The translation service indicates that adding a new language meets several criteria, from language varieties to specific spellings. Adding a language is done not only with artificial intelligence but also with the help of specialized linguists and native speakers to continue making progress.
