The world just got a little more easier to talk to!

A few weeks ago, Google Translate straight up doubled the number of languages they support by adding 110 new ones thanks to the PaLM 2 generational model. This is in line with their goal of putting a 1000 languages on Translate with the use of AI.

I don't think I could have functioned in my 4 years in Japan without Google Translate

The Chrome plugin helped me create and manage bank accounts, order things online, and read news, articles and messages
The conversation feature helped me communicate with friends, strangers and staff
The Lens feature helped me read menus, signs and labels
We even used the API to make the Rakuten Travel global website multilingual

From Cantonese to Qʼeqchiʼ, these new languages represent more than 614 million speakers, opening up translations for around 8% of the world’s population.

Some are major world languages with over 100 million speakers. Others are spoken by small communities of Indigenous people, and a few have almost no native speakers but active revitalization efforts. About a quarter of the new languages come from Africa.

After tackling many popular languages, I am very impressed by the fact that efforts and investment are going into preservation and exposure of lesser known languages.

Eventually I envision a world where languages and their importance will be preserved, however they will not be a barrier to human communication and collaboration. AI will take us there.

#newsbits