Google has announced that Translate now supports 110 additional languages. This is the biggest update the service has received to date. It was all possible thanks to the power of AI.
For reference, before this update, Google Translate supported 133 languages. That's why the service's language support has grown by more than 82% overnight. Googling revealed that it used its PaLM 2 AI language model to achieve such a milestone. The use of artificial intelligence helps to significantly accelerate learning processes in complex systems, and this is a great example.
110 new languages have been added to the list supported by Google Translate
The blog post highlights part of the new supported languages: Afar, Cantonese, Manx, Nko, Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Tamazight (Amazigh) and Tok Pisin. There are also “languages close to Hindi such as Awadhi and Marwadi” and “French Creoles such as Seychellois Creole and Mauritian Creole.” Google's Isaac Caswell said that “about a quarter of new languages come from Africa.”
Not all new supported languages are widely used. In fact, with this update the company wants to contribute to the preservation of languages. There are even some that do not have officially active speakers. Google claims that the update targeted the most common variants of each language. This allows Google Translate to deliver reliable and useful results in the real world.
8% of the population speaks these languages
In total, the 110 new languages supported by Google Translate represent 8% of the population. This translates to more than 614 million active speakers around the world. The company had put forward its ambitious plans for Translate in 2022. At the time, the company stated that its goal is to support up to 1,000 languages thanks to the power of AI.
This latest move brings Google closer to its goal. It also further widens the gap with Apple's translation service. Currently, Apple Translate supports just over twenty languages, a number that pales in comparison.
