The BSC establishes the foundations with GSMA, VEON and Beeline for the development of AI tools in non-global languages in the framework of the Aina Alliance

VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan, which operate in Eurasian countries with speakers of languages with few digital resources, will collaborate with the BSC using the experience gained from the Aina project

The agreement takes place within the framework of the Aina Alliance, the memorandum of understanding between the Government of Catalonia and the GSMA for the joint promotion of Catalan and other languages under conditions of equality in the digital world

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the GSMA and the telephone operators VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan for the development of open source artificial intelligence tools through the Aina project , funded by the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The Aina project generates and makes available to everyone linguistic resources, corpora and computer models so that developers of AI-based applications can easily do so in Catalan. Through the MoU signed today, the parties involved will explore opportunities for collaboration focused on the development of mechanisms and documentation on language models and AI systems and language technologies for languages with few digital resources, including the local languages of the countries where VEON operates, based on the knowledge acquired with the Aina project to provide Catalan with these resources. The cooperation will be carried out in the scope of the Aina Alliance (Aina Alliance), a collaboration between the Catalan Government and the GSMA that promotes the presence of non-global languages in artificial intelligence models, to allow to speakers of all languages to participate fully in the evolution of the digital world. The MoU with VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan is the first agreement signed under this alliance, which invites other GSMA partners and mobile operators to participate in this collaborative effort to address the language gap in AI.

In this sense, the Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent and Ramió, has emphasized that “The Aina Alliance and this first MoU highlight a country project that has a civil society and institutions that provide a wealth of data; with a BSC that is synonymous with technological power and scientific excellence; with a business and research ecosystem ready to innovate and adopt technology; and with a Government committed to guaranteeing that we can live fully in Catalan, also in the digital world“. “We want to export this recipe wherever there are non-global languages that face similar challenges“, he replied. The signing of the MoU by the four parties took place during the event organized by the GSMA ‘M360 Eurasia’, which is taking place these days in Baku (Azerbaijan) and which hosts the main world leaders in connectivity for two days of discussion, debate and networking.

Addressing the language gap in AI

Of the nearly 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, only seven languages have a large infrastructure in the digital world: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Arabic, German and Japanese. The lack of resources in other languages causes a language gap that leads to a suboptimal user experience in AI applications, deepening bias in models and running the risk of widening the digital divide in AI technologies. Ten million people speak Catalan. For this reason, the BSC’s Language Technologies unit has as a priority the generation of digital resources to guarantee the presence of Catalan in the digital world, while making these resources useful for other languages with the same objective.

Through the Aina project, the BSC has published a large number of open source datasets and models, leading the way in the availability of open source AI resources. VEON, which operates in countries home to the 7% of the world’s population that mostly speak low-resource languages, is committed to addressing the AI language gap by supporting the use of low-resource languages, starting with Kazakhstan, where Beeline Kazakhstan IT subsidiary QazCode already launched Kaz-RoBERTA-conversational, an AI module in Kazakh that supports customer service in Beeline Kazakhstan digital applications.

“The development of artificial intelligence also creates gaps between languages. It is important to close them. That is why we are making our knowledge and resources available. The work through the Aina Alliance continues to grow and has allowed us to sign a strategic agreement with the GSMA. This is another step in making our open source AI expertise accessible to the international community”, says Mateo Valero Cortes, director of the BSC. “Artificial intelligence is the next change in the history of technology and it is in our hands to design and develop it in a way that promotes inclusion for everyone. Enabling under-resourced languages to be part of the AI world empowers hundreds of millions of people around the world, addressing current shortcomings in the AI landscape. We are delighted to be the first group of operators to partner with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the GSMA to explore opportunities to face this challenge”, says Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of the VEON group. “Beeline Kazakhstan is the leading operator in AI technologies in the markets where VEON operates. Having previously developed AI-based solutions in Kazakh, Beeline Kazakhstan and Qazcode are well aware of the challenges and opportunities that Kazakhstan’s transformation into the AI era brings. We are very excited to partner with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the GSMA, bringing international expertise to our journey of developing new use cases for AI applications in Kazakh,” says Evgeny Nastradin, CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan . “The project with VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan is the first of our exciting journey with the BSC. We are now asking the industry to join us and work together to reduce the disparity in the development and application of AI technologies in different languages. This disparity exacerbates the AI language gap and the challenges that come with it, including siled innovation and the widening digital divide. The Aina Alliance aims to ensure that no language is left behind as the world moves towards an increasingly AI-driven future,” says Alex Sinclair, GSMA Chief Technology Officer.

Key to the partnership will be the GSMA Foundry Innovation Accelerator, an initiative that brings together mobile operators and the wider technology industry to help members shape the digital future by rapidly developing real-world solutions to the challenges of industry The cooperation will take place within the scope of the Aina Alliance, a collaboration between the Generalitat of Catalonia and the GSMA that promotes the presence of non-global languages in artificial intelligence models, allowing speakers of all languages participate fully in the evolution of the digital world. VEON is the first pilot of the partnership, with the Aina Alliance now inviting other partners and other mobile operator organizations to participate to address the AI language gap through a collaborative effort.

About the GSMA

The GSMA is a global organization that unifies the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver critical innovation for positive business environments and social change. The GSMA’s vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity for people, industry and society to thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations in the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA offers its members three broad pillars: connectivity for good, industry services and solutions, and outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, addressing today’s biggest societal challenges, supporting the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world’s largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 event series . We invite you to learn more by visiting www.gsma.com

About Beeline Kazakhstan & QazCode

Beeline Kazakhstan is the leader in Kazakhstan’s telecommunications industry, serving more than 11 million consumers on its mobile and fixed networks and with its digital services in finance, entertainment and business solutions such as Simply, izi, hitter and BeeTV. His software company QazCode is among the largest software development companies in Kazakhstan with a team of 700 people including 350 developers. QazCode creates solutions such as telecom process automation, gamification, entertainment and IT productivity with an AI approach.

About VEON

VEON is a digital operator that provides connectivity and converged digital services to nearly 160 million customers. Operating in six countries that are home to more than 7% of the world’s population (Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan), VEON is transforming lives through technology-driven services that empower people and drive economic growth. Headquartered in Amsterdam, VEON is listed on NASDAQ and Euronext. For more information, visit: www.veon.com