{"id":68024,"date":"2024-02-13T15:56:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T15:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearglobal.org\/?p=68024"},"modified":"2024-02-13T16:01:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T16:01:56","slug":"advancing-language-technology-social-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearglobal.org\/advancing-language-technology-social-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting 4 Billion Conversations with inclusive language technology"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Starting 4 Billion Conversations with inclusive language technology<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Advancing language technology for social good starts with understanding and collaboration <\/span><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Each person\u2019s language represents their unique culture and identity. Language technology enables us to get and share vital information from one side of the globe to the other. Yet the growing digital language divide leaves out half the world\u2019s population.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Four billion people speak a language that is under-represented in the digital space. Although there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, just 5% are online<\/a>. <\/b>And while AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT have surged, they work best in English, French, and other languages that are common on the internet (with large existing datasets). <\/span>Vital language data doesn\u2019t exist<\/span><\/a> for languages that the world\u2019s most marginalized communities speak, and too many people are ever-more excluded from critical conversations. <\/span>If we want to make inclusive, sustainable progress, it\u2019s time we start to listen.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>

Through funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, represented by the GIZ \u201c<\/span>FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All<\/a>\u201d project, we had the opportunity to build the foundations of the Four Billion Conversations movement (4BC). The goal was to spark multilingual conversations that give people the tools they need to enable fairer access to information and ensure everyone can be heard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Building the Four Billion Conversations (4BC) movement: leveraging language technology to address exclusion<\/span><\/h2>

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The Four Billion Conversations (4BC) movement unlocks the power of language technology to address exclusion. <\/b>By promoting inclusivity for marginalized communities, we can create sustainable change globally. With impactful AI solutions that scale, we can enable more people to participate in conversations that affect them. In social development and humanitarian contexts, where people are excluded from access to crucial information, services and decision-making, multilingual tools and resources can support their needs. It all starts with understanding what local communities and individual service users want, and how we can multiply our impact to reach more people in their language. CLEAR Global\u2019s language AI solutions so far include chatbots, machine translation, and automatic speech recognition technology solutions, particularly for low-resource languages.<\/p>

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Increasing awareness and reach of language AI\u00a0<\/h3>
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With this GIZ-funded project, CLEAR Global focused on building partner networks, and advancing and raising awareness of language AI in regions where people may have limited connectivity or low literacy. We explored multilingual channels like\u00a0TILES<\/b><\/a>\u00a0(Touch Interface for Language Enabled Services),<\/b>\u00a0that work for people with limited connectivity or low literacy. We researched and developed resources that can support local communities with critical\u00a0climate change resilience and sexual and reproductive health information needs<\/b>. Our overall objectives were clear:\u00a0<\/p>

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1. Make language AI and information about it accessible to non-specialists<\/span>, so those without a technical background can use language tech easily.<\/p>

2. Develop a playbook<\/span>: a guide for social impact partners to integrate language AI into their programs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

3. Build dialogue:<\/span>\u00a0engage with program and tech partners across East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia, on technology for social good.<\/span><\/p>

4. Mobilize communities with our translation platform:<\/span>\u00a0extend the TWB Platform\u2019s capability for language data collection, validation and engagement with our global community language volunteers.<\/span><\/p>

5. Identify use cases:<\/span>\u00a0explore potential applications of language AI in climate change resilience for farmers and sexual and reproductive health.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Understanding social impact organizations\u2019 needs and challenges<\/span><\/h2>

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First, we sought to learn about the needs of potential partners and users of language technology in the humanitarian and development sectors. We know from experience we must engage with local communities to understand their needs. So the team <\/span>conducted structured interviews with social impact organizations and technology developers based <\/span>across East Africa and South Asia<\/span>. This would help us understand the existing landscape of language technology in low-resource contexts.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Participants sat around a table engaging in discussion during our 4 Billion Conversations Consultative event in Nairobi, Kenya. Paul from CLEAR Global is stood speaking to the group.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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What we found:<\/span><\/h3>


\u2013 Social impact organizations say language technology has potential:<\/b> language barriers hinder their programs. Only some of those we spoke to already use limited technology to communicate with service users.<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 Adopting language technology requires understanding and support<\/b>: organizations need funding for development and infrastructure, building staff capacity and addressing privacy concerns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 Organizations that use technology to interact with users <\/b>and to address language issues enhance their programs\u2019 reach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u2013 Technology developers need support to build communities <\/b>and networks to improve datasets and financial resources to support those initiatives in low-resource languages.<\/span><\/p>

As part of this project, we collaborated with partners who focus on climate change resilience and sexual and reproductive health, including Data Science Nigeria, Digital Umuganda, Families Fit for Children, Gram Vaani, Kali, Karya, Lesan, Malaica, Masakhane, Reach a Hand Uganda and Urukundo.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mobilizing communities to engage with language data collection\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>

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In this exploratory project, we developed a design mockup of a data collection and validation tool that would allow community members to contribute, collect and validate language data easily on the <\/span>TWB Platform.<\/span><\/a> This software would enable new community members to contribute to datasets that power language technology solutions. One of our aims is to create better platforms for mobilizing language communities to contribute to inclusive, low-bias data creation and validation. So, we collaborated with TWB community members and linguists globally to test out the user journey of our prototype. Additionally, experts at the GLG Social Impact Program\u2019s network shared experience and insights to help inform our strategic considerations around open-sourcing the data collection solution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

We expect to leverage the insights gathered during the mockup testing phase to enhance the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) tool, evaluate the development efforts and ascertain the resources needed for creating the final tool. As for the next steps, we will refine the infrastructure and the tool development plan based on the feedback collected, before initiating the implementation phase.<\/span><\/p>

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One of the most important considerations is usability.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>
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If we want to make vital language data collection more inclusive, we need to consider diverse user needs and experiences. During the process, researching and mapping initiatives across Africa offered useful benchmarks and insights into user-friendly data collection tools to improve community engagement. Notably, we observed that the majority of existing solutions tended to prioritize data collection, often neglecting the crucial aspect of user experience. While the tools we researched, such as <\/span>Tatoeba<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Sentence Society<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Mozilla Common Voice<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Pontoon<\/span><\/a>, were technical and less intuitive, we delved into contemplating the user journey across various scenarios. <\/span>Our approach focuses on human-centered design principles to create a more inclusive data collection tool, designed with users\u2019 perspectives in mind.\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Data collection tool dashboard<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Deploying TILES, an AI-powered information device, in collaboration with Gram Vaani.<\/span><\/h2>

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Unlocking the power of language technology for climate resilience<\/b><\/h3>

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CLEAR Global set out to test a solution that addresses a critical lack of access to information about climate change resilience in low-connectivity and low-literacy contexts. In close collaboration with India-based social impact tech company Gram Vaani, we deployed and evaluated an AI-powered information device to enable farmers to get critical answers to their questions about climate change and adaptation. We are introducing <\/span>TILES<\/span><\/a> – the Touch Interface for Language Enabled Services. This language technology solution responds to voice commands and gives spoken answers to questions in the target language, specifically the Hindi dialect as spoken in Bihar, India.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Growing real-world impact<\/strong><\/h3>

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Farmers in Bihar, India, need information on agriculture seasons, weather predictions, expected rainfall with timeline, agri-inputs and practices to combat the dangerous effects of climate change. The community is concerned about their livelihood and wants to know how to become resilient.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cThe machine should tell us agriculture-related information such as weather-based information, seed to use and protect crops from pests. This information will help improve our agriculture and help us combat climate change.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2013 TILES user, Gidhaur<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Testing TILES where farmers go - a shop that sells seeds and an electronics shop.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Considering the local community\u2019s concerns, we first had to develop targeted, localized content that could answer some of their most pressing questions. Using a Hindi automatic speech recognition (ASR) model, we trained it on relevant topics. We developed question\/answer capability with speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) functions to create a multilingual, two-way communication tool that works offline. Our team fine-tuned the model to adapt to local dialects and specific climate terminology used in the Bihar region to ensure the messages could be understood and delivered effectively. Importantly, this innovative tool would help inform and serve people who have little or no access to reliable, accurate and on-demand information on vital topics such as climate change resilience, adaptation and farming practices.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\u201cI like the fact that the information could be received by speaking with the machine.\u201d\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2013 TILES user, Jamui district<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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With the help of GIZ, we were able to test the device out with communities of farmers affected by climate change. The team deployed TILES in a local seeds and pesticides shop. The goal was to discover how useful users found the tool for exchanging critical climate resilience messages. Could it support farmers to adapt and cope with the impacts of climate change in Bihar? TILES successfully captured 467 user interactions. The initiative gave us valuable insights and evidence on the potential impact of language AI to transform information sharing with, and listening to, marginalized communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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We put humans at the center of solutions designed to support them\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>

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So we asked the local farmers what they thought:<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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