You have probably heard of the extinction of animal species. The Human ethnic group has a fate to disappear if they lose the language.
Using The Summer Institute of Linguistics’ Ethnologue data, Nettle and Daniel can calculate that 90 percent of the world’s population speaks the 100 most-used languages. There are at least 6,000 languages spoken by about 10 percent of the people on earth[1].
Languages with under 100 speakers are so close to extinction that revival for everyday use seems unlikely[1]. Only 15 people can speak the Ainu language as native speakers in 1996[2]. In 2020, the situation is hopeless. We are very concerned about this situation.
Our main project is the revival of a native speaker of Ainu with AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies. Her name is “AI Pirika.” “Pirika” means a pretty Ainu girl.
AI Pirika can talk with you by a Spoken Dialogue Method Using the Inductive Leaming Method Based on Genetic Algorithm with Sexual Selection (SeGA-ILSD). Technical cooperators program this system. Other collaborators record the Ainu language and translate. Someone may be worried that AI Pirika cannot has her emotions. However, we will incorporate emotions into the system.
We are looking forward to applying for endangered languages in the world.
[1] Nettle and Daniel. 2000. Vanishing Voices. Oxford University Press.
[2] Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version: http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas
[3] Kenji Araki and Michitomo Kuroda. Generality of spoken dialogue system using SEGA-IL for different languages. 2006. Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. November 20-22, 2006, San Francisco, CA, USA.