As we look toward 2025, linguistic inclusivity in artificial intelligence development will become increasingly urgent.
As AI globally transforms life and society, two things are confounding. The first is the few big technology companies driving AI advancement paying lip service about “AI serving the needs of everyone, everywhere.” The second is the global development community embracing an exclusive and unrepresentative AI technology that is driven predominantly by English and Mandarin, to the detriment of over 7,000 languages spoken by about 5 billion people across the community it seeks to serve.
When a woman, who is part of a marginalized community, with low levels of education and living in poverty, wakes up to find a lump in her breast, she may not know what her next step should be. She is fluent in her native language but does not speak English or Mandarin. How can AI help her find her way through the daunting maze of medical diagnosis until treatment? Until AI can “speak” the languages of these vulnerable communities, its potential to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, reduce global disease burdens, and address global inequities will remain limited.
About the author
Uyi Stewart
Uyi Stewart is the chief data and technology officer at data.org, where he oversees the delivery of programmatic initiatives to accelerate the power of data and AI to solve some of our pressing global challenges. He holds a doctorate in Linguistics, with about 25 years’ experience advancing data for social impact in both public and private sectors.
