The more than 2,000 African languages spoken today are typically poorly supported by Western-built tech platforms, and the growth of generative AI, which depends on large language models predominantly trained on English text, could make that problem worse.
Jade Abbott, 34, is working to ensure that African languages also benefit from generative AI. She aims to create data sets and natural language processing tools for these languages, which have much less training data than English.
In 2017, while she was working with a software consulting firm, Abbott presented a paper on machine translation of African languages at Deep Learning Indaba, a machine learning conference in South Africa. She shared a replicable notebook that could help machines easily classify African languages. While there, she also met collaborators with whom she would co-found, in 2018, Masakhane, a grassroots collective that researches natural language processing in African languages.
That organization has since released over 400 open-source models and 20 Pan-African language data sets. To build these, Abbott organized volunteers from across the continent to classify and replicate texts in their local languages.
Then, in 2022, Abbott co-founded Lelapa AI with data scientist Pelonomi Moiloa. Their goal was to develop localized language models that would allow businesses to use AI to communicate with African customers in their native languages. Abbott is now Lelapa AI’s chief operating officer.
In 2023, Lelapa AI released the beta version of its first AI tool, Vulavula. It transcribes and recognizes words in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, and Sesotho, which are all spoken in South Africa, where the company is based. Lelapa AI plans to release additional languages, as well as new features like sentiment analysis, in the future.
Abbott’s work is in its early stages. Vulavula is still in beta, and its recently released production API currently has just 100 users. But if her grassroots approach to focusing on this overlooked area of AI development is successful, her contributions could be game-changing—both for speakers of African languages and for the rest of the world, which would benefit from their full participation in generative AI.
