Technology
Kiswahili the first African language on Google’s Bard
Friday July 14 2023
In Brussels, Belgium, on March 21, 2023, the Google Bard web page is seen on screen with Google AI on mobile during the launches. ILLUSTRATION | AFP
Google has announced the expansion of its conversational generative AI chatbot, Bard, to 40 new languages, with Kiswahili getting onboarded as the first African language on the platform.
The tech giant targets netting users from new countries and territories.
Also read: Elon Musk launches xAI firm to take on OpenAI
Other widely spoken languages included in the expansion drive include Chinese, German, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi, with the multinational firm saying that the text-to-speech feature has been enabled for up to eight languages now.
Bard is Google’s experimental AI chat service whose function closely mirrors that of ChatGPT, with the only deviation being that Bard pulls its information from the web.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ranks Kiswahili among the 10 most widely spoken languages around the globe with over 200 million speakers, pointing to the potential value that Bard will reap from the expansion.
“The launch of Bard in Kiswahili is a major milestone as it allows Bard to reach even more people in Africa, where approximately 150 million people speak Kiswahili. This makes Bard more accessible to everyone in the region, and we believe that it has the potential to be a powerful tool for creativity and learning,” said Rachael Ndichu, language manager at Google.
Read: Google offers local SMEs free website set up
Google has also introduced new updates as part of the expansion including a ‘listen to responses’ feature.
