Teaching AI to speak India
Researchers at AI4Bharat are working to bridge the digital divide by training AI models to understand and speak diverse Indian languages. The project addresses the lack of digital data for low-resource languages to make technology more accessible to the Indian population.
Why it matters
Developing AI for low-resource languages is critical for ensuring equitable access to digital tools and information in a multilingual society.
“Nani, aaj kya banaya?” (”Grandma, what did you cook today?”)
It’s a simple question that millions of Indians ask every day. But what if you asked it to an AI assistant? Would it understand the language? The accent? The mix of Hindi and English? What if the question was asked in Tulu, Bundeli, Kodava or Santali instead?
Artificial intelligence has become more advanced at answering questions, translating languages and even writing stories. But there’s a catch. Most AI systems learnt these skills from enormous amounts of digital data — books, websites, videos and conversations, much of it in English. For many Indian languages and dialects, especially those spoken by smaller communities, that kind of digital treasure trove simply doesn’t exist.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in