ChatGPT to learn Welsh
Senedd partners with OpenAI to improve how AI technologies including ChatGPT work in Welsh.
A new partnership between the Welsh government and leading tech company OpenAI has been announced as part of wider plans to support the use of the Welsh language. Through the new initiative, archives will be opened up to contribute data to the research community with the aim of improving the linguistic performance of AI models and apps.
Photo by Ismail Mia
The partnership was among a series of measures announced in the Senedd by Jeremy Miles – Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Energy and Welsh Language. Alongside the AI programme, the government will publish a Welsh Language Education Bill in the next few weeks that seeks to ensure all school pupils in the country can become independent and confident Welsh speakers.
In addition, the government is committed to supporting economic development in communities where there is a high density of people speaking Welsh, to ensure that the language flourishes alongside economic growth. There will also be new opportunities to increase language transmission – in families and within wider communities – in the hope that more people will speak and enjoy the language.
The Welsh government published a Welsh language technology action plan in 2018 and since then had funded, created and worked on a range of initiatives to provide the digital components needed for the language to flourish.
Mr Miles says: ‘Cymraeg [the Welsh language] belongs to us all, and we all have a duty to protect it and to make sure it grows in all aspects of society. I want to see more Welsh for more people and the priorities I’m setting out today will ensure we’re on the right path to meet our target of a million Welsh speakers and increasing the daily use of the language by 2050.
‘All of us use technology one way or another, and increasingly, we’re seeing AI being used in more situations. I’m excited to see how the new data partnership with OpenAI will lead to improving how AI-technologies work in Welsh. Working with OpenAI in the past, we’ve been able to share Welsh language resources and Welsh Government funded components.’
Anna Makanju, VP of Global Affairs at OpenAI, adds: ‘The Welsh Government has been a great partner in creating an open-source dataset for training language models. At OpenAI, we want our models to understand as many languages and cultures as possible, so they can benefit as many people as possible.’
Mr Miles continues: ‘I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved under the Welsh language technology action Plan, but this work is never done and dusted. So today, I’m inviting people to submit information or ideas about what technological developments would help them use more Welsh and what needs to happen to make it easier for them to use technology in Welsh.’
Those interested in taking part can submit information via the Welsh government website. In addition, the government will be engaging with people across Wales and beyond to get their input into future work in technology that can further support the Welsh language.
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