While there are more than 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, only a select few are well-represented across online spaces.
To address this issue, Google has introduced the 1,000 Languages Initiative – a commitment to creating an AI model capable of supporting the 1,000 languages spoken most often around the world.
Google believes this initiative will help to create a more inclusive online environment for billions of people in marginalized environments.
Notably, Google acknowledges this initiative will take some time. However, the company is already making meaningful strides toward its goal.
As this technology continues to evolve, changing the way people live and work, Google believes it’s crucial to create an ecosystem where all languages are properly supported in the digital world.
From a CX perspective, the announcement is significant. With advanced automatic translation capabilities through Google, companies may one day harness this AI model to serve up more relevant experiences to customers across the globe.
From 400 to 1,000 Languages
As part of Google’s new language-focused initiative, and its growing focus on multi-modality, the company has created a Universal Speech Model (USM).
The model is trained in over 400 languages already, giving it the most coverage of any speech model to date.
To expand on this work even further, Google has committed to partnering with communities around the world to source representative speech data.
