When Technology Learns Language: A Case of How Google can save Indigenous Languages
For most of human history, a considerable amount of time, energy, and other resources have been expended translating one language to another in order to bridge the apparent communication gap that exists in a continuously globalising world. However, it must be acknowledged that this large expenditure has made the world around us more intelligible: people can understand each other easier than ever before. It must also be recognised that this has created a dependence on certain globalised languages like English, French, Chinese and Spanish at the expense of other languages especially the indigenous languages of formerly colonised people whose languages are dying out because of disuse. This slow death of indigenous languages simply translates to the gradual erosion of the identity of those who speak it.
Another problem created by the existence of a communication gap in a globalised world is the relegation of people who speak only indigenous languages; these are people illiterate in globalised languages. Ideally, these individuals cannot interact with the modern globalised world because they cannot speak any globalised language. In effect, they are deprived of access to information, healthcare, education, justice, and livelihood which are often conducted in globalised languages like English, French, Spanish or Chinese.
Interestingly, this multifaceted problem of a communication gap can be addressed by strategically applying existing technology. Technology can further bridge the current communication gap that negatively affects the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations with the expenditure of lesser resources than is currently being used. To be specific, a combination of database technology and artificial intelligence has to be employed to act as an arbiter between languages in a way that can bridge the existing communication gap. In essence, we have to teach technology human languages and this process has already been pioneered by Google which has invested in documenting various languages and offering translation services in the form of Google Translate that navigates from one language to another with minimal loss in meaning.
The first stage of the proposition would involve the creation of a healthy database of the world’s many languages. This would involve a massive project to document and translate all of the world’s 7100 languages to any of the global languages preferably English which is currently the most used language on Earth. With a database containing words, sentence structures, and their meaning in English, an indigenous language somewhere in Africa can be translated into English. In the same vein, English can be translated to any language including the indigenous language earlier referred to.
At this juncture, the compiled world language database is fed to an AI system crafted with a natural-language-understanding application of AI. When fed this database, the AI without the need of human interference can autonomously and expediently translate text in one language say Igbo to English and any other language of the world. The implication of this technology is that the relegated people of the world would have access to information, education, healthcare, and other necessities of the modern world in their language. This would drastically eliminate the communication gap that exists in today’s world and take the world one step closer to its globalisation goals.
The final section of this write-up is the cost-benefit analysis of developing this technology. Admittedly, the creation of a worldwide language database run by AI would require massive investments and capital flow to be properly executed. Nevertheless, if properly executed, the benefits will be both financial and social. The social benefit of this communication technology as aforementioned is the preservation of indigenous languages and the provision of access to the necessities of modern life to indigenous peoples all around the world who are illiterate in globalised languages of the world.
The huge financial benefits accruing from the development of this technology would be a result of its wide application in virtually every aspect of life that requires language and communication. This will include social media, the publishing industry, the translation industry, language learning, navigation, and financial services, just to mention a few. This technology has the capacity of serving businesses and individuals directly.
