Google Bard, the tech giant’s generative AI platform, has launched in Arabic, along with more than 40 other languages.
The Arabic language is renowned for its complexity, with numerous dialects that present a challenge for communication. Traditionally, the written form has predominantly been in classical Arabic, posing difficulties for online interactions over the years. Many Arabic speakers have resorted to using “Arabeezy” (a combination of English letters and numbers) as a workaround to express their thoughts effectively.
Google Bard introduces 16 Arabic dialects
Recognising the intricacies of the language, Google ensured that Bard can understand 16 distinct colloquial dialects, including Egyptian, Emirati, and Saudi Arabic. In turn, it would share responses in Modern Standard Arabic.
Interestingly, Bard also has the ability to understand code-switching, where input incorporates both Arabic and another language. This feature caters to the linguistic practices of Arabic speakers, especially those from the Levant region who often blend multiple languages in their conversations.
Bard’s Arabic user interface has also been thoughtfully designed to support right-to-left script, aligning with the natural flow of Arabic text and making it more user friendly.
This comes after Bard’s initial global launch in May, when it was only available in English.
“This announcement means that Arabic speakers are now able to leverage the power of a generative AI based on PaLM 2 technology that Google has developed in an experiment that we call Bard, where they’re able to create new content and collaborate with this AI, experiment to generate and create new ideas, simplify topics and also, directly get involved into the wonders of such technologies,” Najeeb Jarrar, Regional Director of Marketing at Google MENA exclusively told Arabian Business.
However, Bard will not be able to recognise “Arabeezy,” which, according to Jarrar, is no longer necessary because the availability of Arabic language keyboards on devices has diminished the need for this form of communication over the years, leading to an increase in users typing in Arabic.
“We don’t see a lot of usage for Arabeezy in general across the web. Arabeezy was there in a time where keyboards and systems did not support Arabic as much. There are still people who are actually using it, but we don’t see that usage increasing. What we’re actually seeing is the Arabic language actually increasing on the web.”
The launch of ChatGPT in November last year has led to an explosion of similar generative AI platforms, with hundreds of millions of users worldwide. People have grown to rely on these powerful tools for a wide range of purposes, from simplifying complex subjects and condensing lengthy web pages, to creating artwork and generating new ideas.
Many have argued that it will never beat the creativity of the human mind, but what it can do is generate ideas a lot quicker.
Google Bard in Arabic comes with a wide range of features, some of which can enhance your creativity. Here is a list of unique features offered:
- Hearing Bard’s responses out loud by clicking on the sound icon
- Saving, organising, and modifying Bard chat history
- Sharing Bard’s responses with friends through shareable links
- Exporting Python code to online integrated development environment Replit and Google Colab
Other new updates available in English only include the ability to change the tone of Bard’s responses and upload images to prompt the AI platform which will analyse the image with Google Lens and generate a response accordingly.
And unlike ChatGPT, which has a knowledge cutoff of September 2021, Bard consistently updates itself with new information, Jarrar told reporters during a closed session in Dubai on Wednesday. However, he said that it does not update itself in real-time.
“I don’t really know much about other tools to the level where I’m able to judge as much as I can talk about Google. To me, one of the differentiating advancements into Bard is its ability to be creative in other languages, especially in Arabic,” he told Arabian Business.
“There’s a lot of wealth of knowledge in English, of people developing large language models and generative content in English. But doing it in languages that are very complex, that is the situation where it’s actually different.”
20 years of investing in Arabic
Google started their drive for AI advancement in 2014, incorporating it into initial features such as the GBoard keyboard on Android, improving Google Translate, and sentence completion in search boxes to optimise search, as well as Google Lens, which was also highlighted as one of the most significant Ai advancements during the time.
But for almost 20 years, Google has been investing heavily into improving its capabilities in Arabic through technology, Jarrar said.
“We have been enhancing our technology across all of our products from the early days of search to Google Translate, Gmail, Google Images, and Android. Bard is no exception,” he said.
“Since the inception of Bard, ensuring that it’s made available in multiple languages was something essential for us. And from an Arabic point of view, we have worked extensively over the past few months internally to ensure the quality of the product and the information that it’s actually providing, and it is something we are happy and satisfied about. We feel that it is a bold move for users who speak Arabic and that we are providing that experience in a responsible way, both in terms of content and quality.”
Developing an Arabic language model of this level poses very significant challenges, primarily due to the inherent complexities of the language itself. A notable difficulty, that most online translation tools have failed to adapt to properly, is that many words in Arabic share the same spelling, making it difficult to determine the precise pronunciation and intended meaning without the diacritical marks (or characters). This issue is often further exacerbated because most Arabic keyboards don’t include these characters, making it very difficult for tools to decipher the intended meaning and translation of certain Arabic words. But Google’s Bard can, marking a substantial milestone for the language.
“Arabic is a very complex language, and then when you add the [new Bard] capabilities on top, like understanding language-switching and code-switching on top of the language-switching, that is something very creative that I think we are at the bleeding edge of that type of technology that I haven’t seen available. But this is not the end. This is only the start.”
Data privacy on Bard
In terms of privacy, Bard adheres to the same policies as other Google products.
User information is stored for 18 months, but users have the option to reduce this duration or delete their chat history altogether.
While Google may use responses to improve the model, they will not have access to individual users’ specific data. However, Jarrar advised that users refrain from inputting personal or sensitive information into Bard.
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