Thanks to AI, Google Translate now supports 110 new languages
Google has announced a significant expansion to its Google Translate service, adding support for more than 110 new languages. This marks the company's largest ever language expansion, increasing the total number of supported languages from 133 to over 240. The PaLM 2 AI language model played a pivotal role in this development, demonstrating proficiency in learning related languages such as Awadhi and Marwadi, close to Hindi, and Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole, which are French creoles.
Cantonese among most requested languages for Google Translate
Cantonese, one of the most requested languages for Google Translate, is now included in the service's language repertoire. Google executive Isaac Caswell highlighted that incorporating Cantonese posed a unique challenge due to its overlap with Mandarin in writing. This made it difficult to find data and train models. Despite these challenges, Google successfully added Cantonese to its list of supported languages, further enhancing the versatility of its translation service.
Google Translate embraces African languages in expansion
Caswell disclosed that "about a quarter of the new languages come from Africa." This inclusion significantly broadens Google Translate's linguistic diversity. Most of these newly supported African languages are spoken by at least one million people. Several among them are even spoken by hundreds of millions, indicating the potential reach and impact of this expansion on global communication.
