By Indeg, Cymraeg 2050 Team
Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg
When we published the Welsh Language Technology Action Plan in 2018, our aim was to create technological advances that would enable us to use more Welsh in a wide range of situations. The Minister for Education and Welsh Language has now published the final report on this Plan, which looks back at the progress we’ve made.
The Plan focused on three main themes:
- Welsh language speech technology
- Computer-assisted translation
- Conversational Artificial Intelligence
By building the infrastructure for Welsh language technology in this way, we’re encouraging people to use more Welsh, which helps us reach our Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers goals.
We are also supporting delivery of the Digital Strategy for Wales by developing digital tools and technologies which will enable people to access better public services in Welsh.
Latest developments
One of the highlights of the Welsh Language Technology Action Plan was enabling ChatGPT in the Welsh Government funded chatbot, Macsen, developed by Bangor University. This allows Macsen to generate original content as well as responding to simple tasks in Welsh.
The University is now working with the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, to improve how ChatGPT works in Welsh. Specifically, they’re working on ‘yes/no’ answers in Welsh, which vary depending on the question.
Technology is always changing and developments like these help us to make sure that people can use their Cymraeg in new ways.
Using more Welsh through technology
An important part of the Plan was to improve people’s experience of using technology in Welsh. An example of this was changing the Microsoft Office365 user interface to Welsh in Welsh medium schools (78,086 users), making it even easier for learners to use more Welsh in education.
Changes like this reduce friction in the process and make it more ‘EAST’ (easy, attractive, social, topical). By focusing on ‘EAST’ features, i.e. on the needs of the users, the experience of using Welsh in technology is becoming easier and more accessible.
With funding from the Welsh Government, Bangor University has developed Lleisiwr, a project which enables people to bank their voice in Welsh. Voice banking is a process that allows people to record set phrases with their own voice so that they can still communicate if they lose their ability to speak, as a result of health problems for example. Lleisiwr is now available via speech therapists or medical specialists and helps patients continue to speak to their friends and families in Welsh.
Bangor University also worked with us to create domain specific machine translation engines, one for health and care, and the other for legislation. When focusing on a specific domain, results tend to improve compared to more general machine translation engines. This, as well as the release of Cysgliad free of charge to organisations with fewer than ten members of staff, and the entire education and third sectors, has made it easier for people to write in Cymraeg. This software package includes Welsh language grammar and spell checkers as well as dictionaries (12,586 downloads when publishing the report).
Working together
As part of our partnership with Microsoft, we have collaborated to create a simultaneous interpretation facility in Microsoft Teams meetings. This facility is provided at no additional cost to existing Teams users. Work continues with Microsoft to further develop this facility with the hope that this will lead to the creation of similar and new resources for languages spoken around the world, based on our work here in Wales.
The report includes more examples of how we’ve worked together with Research Councils and Universities too, and it acknowledges the volunteers who have given their time generously. Diolch yn fawr to everyone who shared their expertise with us during this Plan’s lifespan.
The Welsh Language Technology Action Plan has played a significant part in encouraging the creation, use, and improvement of Welsh language technology. The achievements mentioned above are just a few examples of the progress we’ve made so far.
Want to know more about what we’ve done? Here’s the full report.
If you’d like to learn even more about Welsh language technology, our Helo Blod website is always here to help.
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