Telecom
Meta’s AI Machine Translation Research Helps Break Language Barriers
Meta has announced that it has built and open sourced ‘No Language Left Behind’ NLLB-200, a single AI model that is the first to translate across 200 different languages, including 55 African languages with state-of-the-art results.
Meta is using the modelling techniques and learnings from the project to improve and extend translations on Facebook, Instagram, and Wikipedia.
In an effort to develop high-quality machine translation capabilities for most of the world’s low-resource languages, this single AI model was designed with a focus on African languages. They are challenging from a machine translation perspective.
AI models require lots and lots of data to help them learn, and there’s not a lot of human translated training data for these languages. For example, there’s more than 20M people who speak and write in Luganda but examples of this written language are extremely difficult to find on the internet.
We worked with professional translators for each of these languages to develop a reliable benchmark which can automatically assess translation quality for many low-resource languages. We also work with professional translators to do human evaluation too, meaning people who speak the languages natively evaluate what the AI produced.
The reality is that a handful of languages dominate the web, so only a fraction of the world can access content and contribute to the web in their own language.
We want to change this by creating more inclusive machine translations systems – ones that unlock access to the web for the more than 4B people around the world that are currently excluded because they do not speak one of the few languages content is available in.
“It’s impressive how much AI is improving all of our services. We just open-sourced an AI model we built that can translate across 200 different languages — many of which aren’t supported by current translation systems.
“We call this project No Language Left Behind, and the AI modelling techniques we used are helping make high quality translations for languages spoken by billions of people around the world.
“To give a sense of the scale, the 200-language model has over 50 billion parameters, and we trained it using our new Research SuperCluster, which is one of the world’s fastest AI supercomputers.
“The advances here will enable more than 25 billion translations every day across our apps. Communicating across languages is one superpower that AI provides, but as we keep advancing our AI work it’s improving everything we do — from showing the most interesting content on Facebook and Instagram, to recommending more relevant ads, to keeping our services safe for everyone.,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post on his Facebook profile.
Language is our culture, identity, and lifeline to the world. However, as high-quality translation tools don’t exist for hundreds of languages, billions of people today can’t access digital content or participate fully in conversations and communities online in their preferred or native languages. This is especially true for hundreds of millions of people who speak the many languages of Africa.
“Africa is a continent with very high linguistic diversity, and language barriers exist day to day. We are pleased to announce that 55 African languages will be included in this machine translation research, making it a major breakthrough for our continent,” Balkissa Ide Siddo, Public Policy Director for Africa said while speaking about the launch of the AI model.
“In the future, imagine visiting your favourite Facebook group, coming across a post in Igbo or Luganda, and being able to understand it in your own language with just a click of a button – that’s where we hope research like this leads us.
“Highly accurate translations in more languages could also help to spot harmful content and misinformation, protect election integrity, and curb instances of online sexual exploitation and human trafficking.”
While commenting on accessibility and inclusion in the pursuit of building an equitable metaverse, Ide Siddo added “At Meta, we are working today to ensure that as many people as possible will be able to access the new educational, social and economic opportunities that the next evolution of the internet will bring to future technology and an everyday living experience tomorrow.”
To confirm that the translations are high quality, Meta also created a new evaluation dataset, FLORES-200, and measured NLLB-200’s performance in each language. Results revealed that NLLB-200 exceeds the previous state of the art by an average of 44 percent.
Meta is also open-sourcing the NLLB-200 model and publishing a slew of research tools to enable other researchers to extend this work to more languages and build more inclusive technologies. Meta AI is also providing up to $200,000 of grants to non-profit organizations for real world applications for NLLB-200.
There are versions of Wikipedia in more than 300 languages, but most have far fewer articles than the 6+ million available in English. Following Meta’s partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that hosts Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects, modelling techniques and learnings from the NLLB research are now also being applied to translation systems used by Wikipedia editors.
Using the Wikimedia Foundation’s Content Translation Tool, articles can now be easily translated in more than 20 low-resource languages (those that don’t have extensive datasets to train AI systems), including 10 that previously were not supported by any machine translation tools on the platform.
MTN Nigeria has proposed issuing up to N50bn series 11 and 12 commercial paper notes to raise funding for its operations, according to the company’s notice to the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
The notes issuance is under the company’s N250bn commercial paper issuance programme.
According to the statement signed by Uto Ukpanah, company secretary, the issuance is part of the company’s strategy to diversify its financing options with the funds being deployed towards short-term working capital requirements.
MTN Nigeria recently completed its series 10 commercial paper issuance under its upsized N250b commercial paper issuance programme.
Ukpanah, the telecom giant it sought to raise N72.1bn and the offer recorded 149 per cent subscription with N72.1bn issued.
The 266-day commercial paper was issued on 29 November 2023 at a yield of 16 per cent.
The CP issuance aligns with MTN Nigeria’s strategy of continuing to diversify its funding sources and reduce its average cost of debt. The proceeds will be applied to short-term working capital requirements.
Karl Toriola, chief executive officer, MTN Nigeria, said, “We are pleased with the support received from the investor community, having recorded a 149 per cent subscription from a broad range of investors. This reflects NTN Nigeria’s robust financial capacity, brand strength, and market leadership amidst the upward pressure on interest rates”
Stanbic IBTC Capital Limited played the role of Arranger and Dealer with ARM Securities Limited. Chapel Hill Denham Advisory Limited, Coronations Marchant Bank Limited, FCMB Capital Markets Limited, Quantum Zenith Capital &Investments Limited, Rand Marchant Bank Limited, and Vetiva Capital Management Limited played the role of Joint Dealers on the transaction.
MTN Nigeria has received a “Media Capacity Development Support Award” for its immense contributions towards the growth and development of media practitioners across Nigeria.
The award was presented by the Media Career Development Network, at its inaugural conference held at the University of Lagos on October 31, 2024.
Held at the Biodun Shobanjo Auditorium Centre for Excellence, the Media Career Development Conference saw the coming together of seasoned media practitioners who shared insights on opportunities for growth and career advancement in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Executive Director of the Media Career Development Network, Lekan Otufodunrin noted that the conference aligns with the organization’s commitment to promoting media excellence and advancing the careers of media professionals in Nigeria.
Speaking on the award, Chief Corporate Services & Sustainability Officer, MTN Nigeria, Tobe Okigbo appreciated the Media Career Development Network for the initiative, while also affirming MTN’s commitment to supporting the media.
“On behalf of MTN, I’d like to extend gratitude to the network for the recognition.
“At MTN, we believe in investing in institutions that bring value to the society and this includes the media.
“Journalists and other media professionals play a crucial role in telling authentic stories and shaping the image of our nation globally.
“So we’re committed to helping them gain the requisite skills and exposure needed to thrive in their profession”, he stated.
MTN Nigeria has consistently shown dedication to training world-class media professionals in Nigeria, particularly through its Media Innovation Programme (MIP).
Since 2022, the ICT firm has partnered with Pan-Atlantic University to enable media practitioners across various platforms gain insight into the rapidly evolving media environment.
Convener and Executive Director of the Media Career Development Network, Lekan Otufodunrin acknowledged the impact of the telecommunications giant’s efforts in upskilling Nigerian media professionals.
“The 6-month Media Innovation Programme created by MTN in partnership with Pan-Atlantic University has afforded media practitioners in-depth training on the media space and even the opportunity to gain more insights in South Africa.
“We hope that MTN Nigeria will continue to champion this programme for the development of professionals”, he said.
The Media Capacity Development Support Award joins a long list of awards MTN Nigeria has received for its contributions towards institutions beyond the telecommunications sector and the general society.
Telecom
MobileCoreX Taps Wireless Technology Labs in Multi-Million Dollar Deal to Build New Mobile Core Network across Nigeria
Wireless Technology Labs (WTL) today announced that it has been chosen by MobileCoreX Ltd (MCX), Nigeria’s premier Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE), to spearhead the development of the country’s first mobile virtual network in a landmark deal valued at millions of US dollars over the next three years.
This initiative aims to enhance mobile connectivity for Nigeria’s 220+ million residents, addressing the current challenges of low broadband penetration and poor quality of service.
Nigeria’s telecom sector is predominantly dominated by four major operators—MTN, Airtel, Globacom, and 9Mobile – with only 29% of Nigerian’s 220+m population regularly accessing the mobile internet, (GSMA figures) due to poor coverage and a variety of other issues.
In Q2 of 2023, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) adopted a new strategy to boost coverage and adoption, it issued 43 Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) licenses to amplify service coverage, particularly in unserved and underserved regions.
Amongst the licensee’s was MCX which obtained a tier 4 MVNE license aimed at constructing new mobile network infrastructure to provide capacity for emerging MVNOs as a platform as a service.
“Coverage, poor quality of service, costs and inflexible value propositions in Nigeria have persisted for too long.
“We are committed to leveraging innovative technology to create more competitive networks that reduce costs for consumers and provides value propositions that suite that needs,” stated Mr. Habib Ahmed, CEO of MCX.
He emphasized WTL’s pivotal role in delivering the carrier-grade core systems required for a comprehensive suite of mobile services, encompassing voice, data, and value-added features to meet the diverse needs of MVNO clients.
WTL, headquartered in Belgium, with over 20 years of experience, has been active in Nigeria and across Africa, working with operators of all sizes to rollout both urban and rural networks, work which has garnered it widespread recognition and industry awards.
The company has already partnered with two of the 43 new MVNOs licensed by the NCC, showcasing its commitment to enhancing telecom infrastructure in the region.
Mr. Satya Mekala, CEO of WTL “This partnership is about empowering a new entrant to make significant impact in the telecom market.
“We are committed to supporting MCX in its journey from a newcomer to a major player in the industry.
“Our advanced Core systems will ensure that MCX can offer reliable, scalable, and innovative mobile services from day one”.
As the telecom industry in Nigeria undergoes transformative changes, this collaboration signals a promising future for mobile connectivity and digital adoption in the country.
WTL will be showcasing its capabilities at upcoming events including MVNO Nation 2024 in Valencia, 6-8 November and The Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town, 12-14 November, further reinforcing its commitment to driving digital adoption across the continent and the globe.
To learn more about how WTL can help with the rollout of MVNO/E urban and rural networks in Africa, please email [email protected]
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