A volunteer network of interpreters wants to make refugees' languages more accessible. Will AI help?

A volunteer network of interpreters wants to make refugees' languages more accessible. Will AI help?

a month ago
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https://apnews.com/article/google-tarjimly-ai-translation-services-refugees-9f5b1e83bcc51b5ce9e36cc72f3a51f3

NEW YORK (AP) — They may be Tigrinya speakers fleeing the authoritarian Eritrean government's indefinite military service policy. Or Rohingya people escaping ethnic violence in Myanmar. But refugees navigating resettlement often face a shared hurdle: poor machine translations and a short supply of interpreters knowledgeable in their less-serviced languages.

Tarjimly, a Google-backed nonprofit described as “Uber for translators,” aims to help asylum seekers clear that hurdle. Through a new artificial intelligence partnership, Tarjimly trains outside large language models while allowing its volunteers to respond more urgently to needs for translators. It's a feedback loop where humans teach the nuances of each language to the machines by sharing data from one-on-one calls and correcting automated translations.