An Auckland-based tech company has developed artificial intelligence that speaks te reo Māori.
Frankly-AI's new chatbot can also speak Samoan, Mandarin and Torres Strait Creole and it’s also up to date with indigenous cultural customs.
Punahamoa Walker (Nō Whakatōhea), the technical lead for the AI, says it's important Māori is included as it is a national language.
He said it was important that the Māori language keeps up with the technological advancements afforded to the English language.
“There is also public consultation you need to make sure that you can engage with the whole community, not just certain segments.”
“If you talk in people's mother tongues, it makes them feel more comfortable, it makes them more willing to speak to you and you have really engaging conversations with them.”
'Specific iwi dialects'
Kai whaka Māori helped with the process of making the language more conversational.
“The goal is to make things as natural as possible.”
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Walker said that they had also made the technology so focused that it could work down to specific iwi dialects. “We are playing around where, once they tell their whakapapa, it will change the dialect mid-conversation.”
'Used in multiple applications'
Walker said the approach to data sovereignty is different from a western worldview vs a Māori worldview. “Knowledge is viewed as a taonga.”
Walker said this technology could be used in many applications to try to make the navigation of situations easier, “if someone was trying to navigate through the health services by creating assistants that people can understand”.
He said the tech had big potential but the issue was that it would always be a few years behind English with applications like Siri and Google Home forging the path of development.
“Whatever you could imagine doing in English, we could do in Māori.”