Lugha ya Kiswahili imeongezwa kwenye huduma za Tafsiri, Utafutaji wa Sauti na GBoard kupitia Google

[Mtoa Taarifa]

Kiswahili kimekuwa kati ya Lugha 15 za Afrika zilizoongezwa kwenye huduma za 'Voice Search', Kuandika kwa Sauti kwenye Gboard pamoja na huduma ya Kutafsiri Lugha nyingine kupitia 'Google Translate'.

Nchini Kenya na Afrika Mashariki, Google inasema inapanua toleo lake kwenye Utafutaji wa Sauti na Gboard kwa kuongeza Kisomali, Kikuyu, Kirundi, Kitigrinya, Kiamhari na Kioromo, pamoja na Kiswahili na Dholuo.

Huko Afrika Magharibi, Google sasa inaauni Twi, mojawapo ya lugha zinazozungumzwa zaidi nchini Ghana, na pia lugha 4 kuu za Nigeria, nchi yenye lugha zaidi ya 500 na watu milioni 218.

Kihausa, Kiyoruba, Kiigbo na Pijini ya Kinigeria huzungumzwa na takriban watu milioni 129, au karibu 60% ya wakazi wa Nigeria.

>

Google has added 15 more African languages on Voice Search, typing with voice on Gboard and voice input on Translate.

Enabling voice input across these products offers approximately 300 million more people across Africa the freedom to interact with the web and communicate with friends and family using the modality that comes most naturally to many people: their voice.

Making a difference​

Alex Okosi, Managing Director of Google Africa said this technology will make a difference to over 300 million more people across the continent.

“It will enable them to interact with the web with just their voice. With teams in Google Accra working on this, it’s one example of how Google in Africa is building technology for Africans – and the world”.

Matt Brittin, President of Google in Europe, Middle East and Africa speaking from Kenya said the next decade is set to be Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital decade – with more than half the population accessing the Internet for the first time.

“The next decade is set to be Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital decade – with more than half the population accessing the Internet for the first time. Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful – and extending Voice Search, voice typing on Gboard and voice input on Translate to 300 million people across Africa is a key landmark in that,” Matt Brittin, President of Google in Europe, Middle East and Africa said.

The language extension has been made possible by advances in AI, specifically multilingual speech recognition – which converts speech into text. Multilingual speech recognition models are trained on data from multiple languages, and then are able to transcribe speech into text in any of those languages. The AI model learns languages in the way a child would – learning to associate certain speech sounds with the specific sequences of character in the written form.

“This technology will make a difference to over 300 million more people across the continent – enabling them to interact with the web with just their voice. With teams in Google Accra working on this, it’s one example of how Google in Africa is building technology for Africans – and for the world,” Alex Okosi, Managing Director of Google Africa said.

KENYAN WALL STREET