The Irish language is an important part of Ireland’s culture, but it is a minority language and like many ‘at risk’ languages around the world, Irish needs to be protected.
Today we’re talking about how AI can help to boost the Irish language and the importance of diverse data collection in building robust translation systems. We also hear how researchers are using natural language processing and other tools to help maintain the richness of the language and make it more accessible and available to those who use it.
Our experts today are passionate about protecting minority languages and are working on technology to improve machine translation of the Irish language with the Adapt Centre. They are postdoctoral researcher, Dr Abigail Walsh and research assistant with eSTÓR, Gráinne Caulfield, both from Dublin City University.
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
● Protecting minority languages with AI ● The limitations of data collection and the need for more diversity ● Using Natural Language Processing to collect the complexities of a language ● AI’s role in encouraging more use of an at risk language ● Getting social media platforms on board to make language more accessible
GUEST DETAILS
Abigail Walsh is a PhD student at the ADAPT Centre in Dublin City University. Her research focuses on improving NLP for Irish language, focusing on the treatment and automatic processing of Multiword Expressions (MWEs). Abigail’s interests include Irish language technology, MWEs, NLP for low-resource languages, linguistic analysis, data processing, Machine Translation, and Machine Learning.
Gráinne Caulfield is a recent graduate of Irish & French from Trinity College Dublin, currently working as a Research Assistant on the eSTÓR project. In this role, she executes the project’s outreach activities- carrying out site visits to relevant stakeholders, managing the social media platforms, newsletter writing etc, as well as translation and data processing duties.
MORE INFORMATION
Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/
