Pichai: Google Developing AI To Support 100 Indian Languages

According to Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, the company is trying to make text and voice internet search available in more than 100 Indian languages. 

Pichai, who is visiting India, has noted that the pace of technological advancement in the nation has been extraordinary. Google is assisting startups and small businesses, investing in cybersecurity, promoting education and skill development and implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in fields such as healthcare and agriculture.

Sundar Pichai, writes, "I'm here to see progress being made from our USD 10 billion, 10-year India  Digitisation Fund (IDF), and share new ways. We're helping to advance India's digital future at our Google for India event. That includes our efforts to build a single, unified AI model that will be capable of handling over 100 Indian languages across speech and text - part of our global effort to bring the world's 1,000 most-spoken languages online, and to help people access knowledge and information in their preferred language."

Google has announced intentions to invest USD 10 billion in India over the next five to seven years in July 2020 in an effort to hasten the uptake of digital services in the important international market.

This is part of Google's effort to take advantage of the AI market opportunity globally while juggling the need to be innovative, ambitious, and responsible in its approach. Pichai has expressed his astonishment at the ways in which individuals are already utilising technology to improve their communities.

"We're also supporting a new, multidisciplinary centre for responsible AI with IIT Madras. I'm excited to see the ways India will contribute to breakthroughs in AI that could benefit over a billion people in India, and more around the world," says Pichai.

Pichai spoke with Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of information technology and telecoms, before his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Prime Minister Modi's Digital India vision has helped to accelerate the progress we're seeing across India, and I'm excited for India to share its experience with the world as it takes over the G20 presidency in 2023," adds Pichai.