One of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in this country is now available through GoogleSA国际影视传媒檚 translation service, the first time the tech giant has included a First Nations, Metis or Inuit language spoken in Canada on its platform.
Inuktut, a broad term encompassing different dialects spoken by Inuit in Canada, Greenland and Alaska, has been added to Google Translate, which translates text, documents and websites from one language into another.
The latest addition is part of a Google initiative to develop a single artificial intelligence language model to support 1,000 of the most spoken languages in the world.
There are roughly 40,000 Inuktut speakers in Canada, data from Statistics Canada suggests.
The number of speakers alone is not enough to determine whether a language can be included in Google Translate, said Isaac Caswell, a senior software engineer with the platform.
There also has to be enough online text data to pull from to create a language model.
Other Indigenous languages in Canada have SA国际影视传媒渉ad simply too little data to have any usable machine translation model,SA国际影视传媒� said Caswell.
For example, engineers looked at adding Cree, which is spoken by more than 86,000 people in Canada, but there were fewer websites in the language to pull from.
SA国际影视传媒淲e donSA国际影视传媒檛 want to put anything on the product which just produces broken text or nonsense,SA国际影视传媒� said Caswell.
SA国际影视传媒淚nuktut really stands out in that it has a lot of clean and a lot of well written data, because, I think, the community is increasingly online.SA国际影视传媒�
When adding a language to Google Translate, the tech company looks at two main things: whether thereSA国际影视传媒檚 a desire or need from the community and how technically feasible is it.
After Google determined its model could recognize Inuktut, it began to consult with language speakers and organizations.
The company reached out to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national organization that represents about 70,000 Inuit in Canada, to ensure development of the model was true to the Inuktut language, including the ability to translate both of the languageSA国际影视传媒檚 writing systems.
Inuktut uses qaniujaaqpait, or syllabics, and qaliujaaqpait, based on the Roman alphabet.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has developed its own data set of common characters that can be used to write in any dialect of Inuktut to help ease written communication among the different Inuit regions.
SA国际影视传媒淚f we hadnSA国际影视传媒檛 had their help, we would have just been able to launch in syllabics, which undermines some of their current work,SA国际影视传媒� said Caswell.
The organization welcomed GoogleSA国际影视传媒檚 work to include Inuktut, citing the need to revitalize, protect and promote Inuit languages.
SA国际影视传媒淭his is another way in which to make our language relevant, easily accessible and for those who donSA国际影视传媒檛 know it at all, to be able to interact with it,SA国际影视传媒� Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, said in an interview.
SA国际影视传媒淭his is reconciliation in action and I really appreciate those whoSA国际影视传媒檝e taken the time to work with us to keep our language strong and to celebrate our language.SA国际影视传媒�
With the introduction of Inuktut, Google aims to be more representative of a group often overlooked by the tech sector.
SA国际影视传媒淚 hope, maybe if anything, it will make them feel a little bit more seen by a big tech (company). Because, in general, Indigenous communities have had a lot of experiences being overlooked by technology,SA国际影视传媒� said Caswell.
Users will have the ability to translate written Inuktut to English and vice versa through Google Translate. Other options, including the verbal translation tool, may come at a later time, said Caswell.
The use of AI in promoting Indigenous languages is not without its limitations, said Caswell, but he suspects this will change as more and more languages are unlocked with improved technology.
SA国际影视传媒擝y Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press
