Kiswahili makes it to Google AI platform as first African language
The tool would function as a sort of co-pilot for reporters and editors by providing options for headlines or different writing styles, the company said.
Swahili will be the first African language to be included in a new Google Artificial Intelligence conservational platform.
The service; Google Bard, will now have 40 new languages and has cast its net wide to almost sixty countries and territories.
Bard is an AI service that puts together the world's knowledge through power, intelligence and creativity of Google’s large language models. All its information is based on what is available on the internet.
Additional features
The AI service now has additional features for users to have their experiences as they deem fit and now boosts creativity.
Some of the new languages that have been added to the list include; Chinese, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi, and Spanish.
The platform has added a text to speech feature for eight languages.
“We’re excited that this is Bard’s largest expansion to date – we see its global availability as a great democratizer of knowledge,” said Dorothy Ooko, Head of Communications and Public Affairs in a statement.
“That’s why we created Bard: to help you explore that curiosity, augment your imagination and ultimately get your ideas off the ground — not just by answering your questions, but by helping you build on them,” she added.
“The launch of Bard in Swahili is a major milestone as it allows Bard to reach even more people in Africa, where approximately 150 million people speak Swahili. 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. We are excited to see how people in the region use Bard to explore their ideas and discover new things,” said Rachael Ndichu, Language Manager at Google.
Other features added to the AI which competes with others of its kind like ChatGPT includes, listening to responses that are available in more than 40 languages.
This allows users to listen to Bard’s responses once they select the sound icon. It will help multilingual users to listen to correct pronunciation of a word, or listen to a poem or script.
Ease of use
“Users can also now adjust Bard’s responses by changing the tone and style of its responses to five different options: simple, long, short, professional or casual. This feature is live in English and will expand to new languages soon,” said a statement by Google.
Also, users who wish to revisit their conversations later can pin and rename those for ease of use should they wish to.
It will also be a favourable platform for software developers who wish to use the platform for their work.
“Through the export code to more places feature, users can now export Python code to Replit, in addition to Google Colab, making it easier for users to share their code with others or use it in other projects,” announced Google.
“Users will also be able to share responses with friends using shareable links, making it easier to collaborate on projects or get feedback on ideas. Also launched is the feature allowing users to upload images with prompts to Bard,” they added.
The Google team affirms that Bard may sometimes have inaccurate information and in case that happens, the Bard support team welcomes feedback through their platform; Bard Help.
“As an experimental technology, if a response from Bard is inaccurate or unsafe, if one experiences an issue, or just wants to provide feedback, there’s an easy way to do that,” they said.
