Use AI to develop local languages, firm urges

In celebration of Buwan ng Wika, an innovation expert urged to maximize the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to develop local languages.

During the AI Fest hosted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Iloilo City, Ken Lerona, founder and president of Cornelius Magnate Engagement and Consulting, bared how AI could potentially enrich the use of local languages.

"AI, using indigenous knowledge and local language, enriches the lives of our people... Rather than gatekeeping the tradition, the epics, the changes, the arts of our Indigenous People from AI, why don't we bridge the gap?" Lerona said.

He also addressed misconceptions surrounding AI, saying it would just "damage" Indigenous Peoples' culture and arts.

"Please stop sowing fear that all the intention of AI is only to damage our culture. Why don't we start talking about how we can use AI to further promote our culture? To further put our culture out there in the bigger world?" he added.

Using ChatGPT, for example, to translate English to Hiligaynon, the AI-powered language would still hallucinate Cebuano as Hiligaynon, according to Lerona.

"The reason being, not so many people are using ChatGPT or AI in Hiligaynon. So that's why the perspective, the pool of knowledge of [large language model] is basically, they think that it's in the Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and vice versa," he continued.

"So the lesser that we expose our culture to the reality of AI, the more that we will be expanding the gap and keeping all of those things away from the future," he added.

There are an estimated 183 living languages in the Philippines, according to Ethnologue. Many of these are indigenous languages.

Further, 27.5 million Filipinos speak Cebuano as their native language, making it the most spoken native language in the country, with Cebuano speakers primarily concentrated in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

Meanwhile, there are approximately 9.1 native speakers of Hiligaynon in the country, with an additional five million who are considered proficient in the language.

Hiligaynon is primarily spoken in the Western Visayas Region, including Panay Island and Negros Occidental, as well as in parts of Mindanao, particularly Soccsksargen.