New Delhi: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has introduced the first-of-its-kind AI-powered translation app for tribal languages, Adi Vaani. The app is currently in the beta version, with support for Santali from Odisha, Bhili from Madhya Pradesh, Mundari from Jharkand and Gondi from Chhattisgarh. The app was developed by a consortium led by IIT Delhi, comprising of IIIT Hyderabad, BITS Pilani, and IIIT Nava Raipur, working closely with the Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) in Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Meghalaya. In the next phase, the researchers plan to add the Kui and Garo languages.
According to the 2011 census, India is home to 461 tribal languages, out which 81 are vulnerable and 42 are critically endangered. These are low-resources languages, and do not have the vast digital text corpora necessary for training AI models are just not available. The researchers worked closely with the native language people to realise the models. The Adi Vaani app is an attempt to use AI technologies for the digitisation, revitalisation and preservation of tribal languages. The app supports text-to-text, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, speech-to-speech translations, and has the capabilities for optical character recognition, that enables speedy digitisation. The technology enables tribal communities to access education, governance and healthcare services in their native languages.
Adi Vaani empowers tribal communities
One of the researchers working on Adi Vaani, Radhika Mamidi from IITH says, “We will continue to improve the models with more feedback coming in with the Beta launch. Our aspiration is to make NCERT books, educational and health awareness videos, Government schemes and materials to be made available in these low resource languages using the fast-emerging AI technologies. We also plan to work on more indigenous languages. As part of Indic-Wiki summer internship programme, under the mentorship of Krupal Kasyap, we focussed enriching online content in Telangana origin languages such as Gondi, Koya, Kolami, Naikdi, Chenchu, Kaikadi (Yerukala), Lambadi, Nakkala, and Konda Kammara. Hopefully, we can make AI tools for these languages as well with the support from Telangana government and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.”