More than 200 million Swahili speakers in Africa are now able to interact with Bard, the Artificial Intelligence chatbot by Google using the language.
This follows the expansion of the AI chatbot which is now available in more than 40 languages in 59 new countries and territories.
“We’re excited that this is Bard’s largest expansion to date – we see its global availability as a great democratizer of knowledge,” said Dorothy Ooko, Google Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Swahili is the first African language to be included in the conversational AI service.
The expansion includes new features that allow users to better customize their experience, boost their creativity, and get more done, the firm stated.
“The launch of Bard in Swahili is a major milestone as it allows Bard to reach even more people in Africa, where approximately 150 million people speak Swahili. This makes Bard more accessible to everyone in the region, and we believe that it has the potential to be a powerful tool for creativity and learning. We are excited to see how people in the region use Bard to explore their ideas and discover new things,” said Rachael Ndichu, Language Manager at Google.
Besides Swahili, other mostly spoken languages in the latest expansion include Chinese, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi.
Users can now access Bard in their preferred language with text-to-speech also enabled in 8 languages.
“That’s why we created Bard: to help you explore that curiosity, augment your imagination and ultimately get your ideas off the ground — not just by answering your questions, but by helping you build on them,” added Ooko.
Google said the inclusion of more languages and territories will also help to make Bard more inclusive and safe, through feedback from a wider range of users.
New updates on Bard also include, listen to responses which is available in over 40 languages and allows users to listen to Bard’s responses once they select the sound icon.
The sound icon helps users hear the correct pronunciation of a word or listen to a poem or script.
Users can also now adjust Bard’s responses by changing the tone and style of its responses to five different options: simple, long, short, professional or casual.
This feature is live in English and will expand to new languages soon.
Google has also launched four new features to help users get more done. Users can now pin and rename their conversations with Bard, making it easier to revisit conversations that contain important information or ideas later.
Bard Users will also be able to share responses with friends using shareable links, making it easier to collaborate on projects or get feedback on ideas. Also launched is the feature allowing users to upload images with prompts to Bard.
Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of Google’s large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide responses.
Google however warns users that as an experimental technology, Bard may occasionally make inaccurate statements in response to user prompts.
