Google Translate has added 24 new languages to its database, including Ewe and Twi spoken in Ghana and Togo. This brings the total number of languages that Google can interpret to 133.
Among these, there are ten indigenous languages of Africa, and some other languages from India and the America spoken by 300 million people.
The languages spoken in Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Mali, South Africa, Eritrea, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe are among the new additions to the list.
“For years, Google Translate has helped break down language barriers and connect communities all over the world. And we want to make this possible for even more people — especially those whose languages aren’t represented in most technology. So today we’ve added 24 languages to Translate, now supporting a total of 133 used around the globe,” the tech giant said in a statement published on Wednesday May 11, 2022.
According to Google, the new languages are the first to use Zero-Shot Machine Translation, where a machine learning model only sees monolingual text. Meaning, it learns to translate into another language without ever seeing an example.
However, Google has acknowledged that the technology is not flawless.
“While this technology is impressive, it isn’t perfect. And we’ll keep improving these models to deliver the same experience you’re used to…”, Google said.
The Ewe language is used by about seven million people in Ghana and Togo and part of Benin, meanwhile Twi is used by approximately 11 million people in the Republic of Ghana.
Source: AfrikPage