Google announced the expansion of Bard, its conversational AI service, to 40 new languages including Swahili – the first African language.
Google also announced that Bard is now available in most of the world, including countries in the European Union (EU), and in the most widely spoken languages, including Swahili, Chinese, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi, and Spanish.
Users can now access Bard in their preferred language with text-to-speech also enabled in 8 languages.
Why This Matters
According to UNESCO, Swahili is among the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 200 million speakers. The inclusion of more languages and territories will also help to make Bard more inclusive and safe, through feedback from a wider range of users.
What They’re Saying
“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.
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