MTN Group received a call from Nigeria to act to support a collection of datasets in African languages. These are necessary to develop the continent's own leading language model (LLM) to promote AI-driven solutions for 1.5 billion people in Africa.
talkY'ello Chair Vodcast: Link to the African Continent', Nigerian Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. Bosun Tijani said that a joint public/private effort is urgently needed to fund academic research on many languages on the continent to make AI in Africa. He challenged the MTN Group, which operates in 15 markets and 16 markets to mobilize resources for this.
“We like these types of partnerships. An accepted challenge.” Ralph Mupita, president and CEO of MTN Group, said on the Vodcast.th UN General Assembly in New York. It was hosted by Angela Wamora, Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at the GSMA Mobile Industry Association.
The Vodcast follows the launch of Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale (N-Atlas). It is an open source, multilingual LLM designed to understand and generate Nigerian diverse voices, digitize the richness of the country's language, and create datasets of AI solutions.
Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, speaks more than 500 languages. N-Atlas is a public/private initiative of the Nigerian government and Awarri Technologies.
The Atlas framework is open and open to other African countries and provides a platform for local language innovation, and in doing so transforms education, health, commerce and governance.
“We must avoid the risk of Africans becoming digitally lower classes.” Mpita mentioned the work to ensure that citizens do not feel excluded on continents where there are over 2,000 languages and most are inadequately represented in the global AI ecosystem.
He said the digital economy is the “best bet” to ensure citizens have dignity, hope and opportunity.
“The outcome we want is that people are digitally included, economically included and have dignity. Poverty can include all kinds of insults, so this point of dignity is very important to me. He said.
Y'ello Chair Vodcast It is a platform where leaders and changemakers share insights, challenge norms and drive the digital future of Africa. For episode 2, see https://youtu.be/wmttjks5teo?si=3gdei6vs0tflyslt
