Relying on the way you depend, India has not less than 120 languages, and one other 1,300 “mom tongues,” an Indian time period that refers to native dialects. The nation’s authorities acknowledges 22 languages however primarily operates in simply two: Hindi, largely spoken in India’s north, and English. That excludes tens of hundreds of Indians who communicate neither.
Enter Microsoft’s AI for Good initiative—the tech large’s umbrella program that tries to make use of AI to resolve issues in well being, environmental safety, and human improvement. The U.S. firm has used India to pilot a number of novel makes use of of the brand new expertise, comparable to an app that makes use of AI to inform farmers the most effective time to sow seeds or a mannequin that makes use of satellite tv for pc photographs to forecast how a pure catastrophe would possibly damage a susceptible inhabitants.
However Microsoft and its AI researchers are notably fascinated about navigating India’s linguistic challenges, hoping it would unlock breakthroughs elsewhere. “India’s complexity makes it a check mattress for multilingual settings all over the place,” says Ahmed Mazhari, Asia president for Microsoft. “If you happen to can clear up and construct for India, then you possibly can clear up and construct for the world.”
Small languages and huge language fashions
The Jugalbandi chatbot, which Microsoft debuted in Could 2023, is considered one of AI for Good’s flagship initiatives. The chatbot is focused to rural farmers—particularly those that dwell in areas that don’t communicate India’s extra well-liked languages—who need to find out about or entry public providers, comparable to making use of for a scholarship.
Jugalbandi makes use of a big language mannequin, developed with native analysis lab AI4Bharat, to parse a question, uncover the related data, then generate an easy-to-understand reply within the consumer’s native tongue. (At the moment, Jugalbandi can translate 10 of India’s 22 official languages.)
(Fortune earlier featured Microsoft’s work with AI and Jugalbandi on its 2023’s “Change the World” listing.)
One other Microsoft initiative referred to as VeLLM, or “Common Empowerment with Massive Language Fashions,” goals to enhance how GPT, the OpenAI-developed mannequin that underpins ChatGPT, works when utilizing less-popular languages. Most of at present’s giant language fashions work best in a handful of main international languages—primarily English and Chinese language—as a result of a lot knowledge are in these two languages. It’s tougher to coach AI on so-called low-resource languages, the place knowledge is scarce or non-existent.
VeLLM is the inspiration for different experiments with AI, like Shiksha, a generative AI bot that helps academics create new curricula in non-English languages shortly, releasing up extra to be spent on instructing.
‘Participatory’ design
Microsoft engineers like Kalika Bali, principal researcher for Microsoft Analysis India, are cautious of cutesy expertise options that don’t mirror how rural Indians dwell their lives.
Technologists have lengthy tried to make use of the South Asian nation as a testing floor to show that digital applied sciences—cheap laptops, affordable internet, and smartphone apps—can enhance high quality of life in rural India.
But not each initiative was a hit, Bali notes dryly. She remembers one challenge by which designers from a improvement group tried to create a sport to assist ladies farmers in India entry essential data.
“The ladies gave that individual such a disdainful look,” she stated. “They stated ‘Do you suppose we’ve got time for enjoying video games?’”
As a substitute, Bali says she and her group pursue a “participatory” design course of. “We spend lots of time with the communities that we’re working for, making an attempt to have them say what they need out of a expertise, or how they need to clear up an issue,” she says.
Not simply social good
Microsoft, in fact, isn’t simply fascinated about AI for its potential for social good. The U.S. tech large is developing its own AI products, hosted on its Azure cloud computing system. It’s additionally a key backer of ChatGPT developer OpenAI. The hype round AI has helped lift Microsoft’s inventory by 65% over the previous yr, pushing its market worth to $3 trillion, making it the U.S.’s most beneficial firm.
Mahzhari sees lots of alternative for Microsoft in Asia, the place there’s “an unimaginable tempo of change and transformation throughout industries and geographies.” He factors to a number of examples the place Asian firms have turned to Microsoft’s generative AI providers: Lazada, the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba, used Microsoft instruments to create the primary e-commerce chatbot in Southeast Asia.
Nonetheless, even when Microsoft’s experiments in India don’t do a lot for the corporate’s backside line immediately, they supply essential classes for the corporate going ahead.
“Our partnerships below AI for Good and different pilot initiatives allow us to select up early alerts for advancing AI safety and security,” Mahzhari says. These classes are then used to develop “insurance policies for much-needed guardrails” on the brand new expertise.
Bali is aware of that you could’t separate her work from Microsoft’s general enterprise curiosity in AI.
“These are early forays when it comes to the right way to make individuals who wouldn’t have entry to expertise get on the expertise wagon,” she says. “Then they may turn out to be, hopefully, future expertise customers who would, amongst different issues, additionally use Microsoft merchandise.”
Fortune is internet hosting the inaugural Fortune Innovation Forum in Hong Kong on March 27-28. Specialists, traders, and leaders of the world’s largest firms will come collectively to debate “New Methods for Progress,” or how firms can finest seize alternatives in a fast-changing world.