Google has expanded its translation service, Google Translate, adding support for 110 new languages.
This update is the platform’s largest to date, enhancing its ability to serve nearly a tenth of the world’s population.
The newly supported languages include Afar, Cantonese, Tamazight (Amazigh), Awadhi, Marwadi, Manx, Nko, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Seychellois Creole, Mauritian Creole, and Tok Pisin, among others.
This expansion is driven by advancements in Google’s PaLM 2 AI language model, which has enhanced the platform’s ability to learn closely related languages.
This is particularly obvious in the support for languages like Awadhi and Marwadi, which are closely related to Hindi, and the French creoles such as Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole.
Cantonese, a highly requested language, has also been added despite its complexity due to its overlap with Mandarin in writing.
The addition of these languages brings Google Translate’s total to 243 supported languages. The new languages represent over 614 million people, with a huge portion coming from Africa, making the largest inclusion of African languages in the service’s history.
With this new development, Google is preserving languages, including those with few active speakers, and adapting to regional dialects and spelling conventions.
The move involves prioritizing the most commonly used varieties of each language. For example, the Romani language, which has numerous dialects across Europe, is represented by Southern Vlax Romani, while also incorporating elements from other dialects like Northern Vlax and Balkan Romani.
This initiative is part of Google’s goal — the 1,000 Languages Initiative, announced in 2022. This program aims to build AI models to support the 1,000 most spoken languages worldwide.
Last year, Google Translate added 24 new languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, a technique that enables translation into a new language without prior examples.
Google is one of many tech companies integrating AI to enhance its services. AI technology has also been integrated into Google’s other platforms, such as Gmail, Search, and Messages.
Meanwhile, competitors like Apple and Microsoft are similarly leveraging AI to enhance their product offerings, with Apple recently announcing new AI-driven features for the iPhone.
Google Translate’s new languages can be accessed via the website and through its mobile apps on Android and iOS.
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