Orange is partnering with OpenAI and Meta to improve AI large language models (LLMs) for regional languages in Africa that are currently unsupported by GenAI models in the Middle East and Africa.
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This unique project intends to create custom AI models that will enable clients to communicate organically in their native languages with Orange for customer assistance and sales.
Orange plans to distribute open-source AI models with a free license for non-commercial use in public health, education, and other services. They aim to promote AI innovation in regional languages by collaborating with local entrepreneurs and technology companies, aiming to bridge the growing digital divide in Africa.
The program, which will launch in the first half of 2025, will initially focus on merging regional languages such as Wolof and Pulaar, which are spoken by 16 million and six million people, respectively, in West Africa. Orange’s long-term ambition is to collaborate with numerous AI technology vendors to enable future models to recognize all African languages spoken and written throughout the region’s 18 countries.
Orange aims to make AI and related advances accessible to all, including illiterate populations, by fine-tuning leading AI models like OpenAI’s ‘Whisper’ speech model and Meta’s ‘Llama’ text model. This initiative serves as a blueprint for how AI can be used to benefit those currently excluded, enabling them to better understand regional languages.
In addition to this regional African language recognition project, they have signed an agreement that will give Orange direct access to OpenAI’s models, which will be available for the first time in Europe, along with data processing and hosting in European datacenters, allowing Orange to work on improving existing solutions across its footprint. Furthermore, this new alliance will provide early access to OpenAI’s most sophisticated AI models, allowing for the realization of other critical use cases such as AI-based voice interactions with Orange consumers.
This strategy minimizes the environmental impact and lowers costs for the numerous beneficial AI use cases implemented throughout Orange by only utilizing the newest large language models where absolutely required and opting for simpler, less expensive alternatives in other circumstances.
With their support of open-source AI initiatives aimed at lowering the cost of AI for everyone, Orange is also significantly contributing to the growth of a thriving European AI ecosystem.
