Microsoft Commercial AI for Cultural Heritage: The Māori Language Included in Translator app 2025

VIDEO Microsoft AI for Cultural Heritage: The Māori Language Included in Translator app TV commercial 2019 • Microsoft announced the inclusion of te reo Māori in the Microsoft Translator application, which will enable instant translations of text from more than 60 languages into te reo Māori and vice versa. This is a key element of the AI for Cultural Heritage program. 00:09 My identity isn't just me sitting here. 00:13 It's all of those above and all of those below. 00:18 I connect to them through my language. 00:23 Our language is the key to our world. 00:28 Without it, we lose the understanding of who we are. 00:38 Māori was the predominant language in Māori communities, 00:41 and after World War II there was 00:42 a huge migration of people into urban areas. 00:45 It was an oral language, 00:46 and it's only been a written language for 200 years. 00:50 The corpus of translated texts is really small 00:53 when you compare it to other big languages. 00:55 And so we saw the language start to dwindle. 00:57 If something wasn't done, then our language would become extinct. 01:06 Speak Māori all the time... 01:10 Speak Māori day and night. 01:19 We need AI and Neural Machine Learning to 01:23 revitalize the Māori language. 01:25 So we started working with the team here at AUT. 01:30 We're using data that's only in Māori language. 01:34 The more data we get that's specific to Māori 01:37 the better the AI we're able to create. 01:40 Microsoft are providing the platform, and then 01:43 as people use it, it will continue to learn. 01:52 For language to survive it must be normalized, 01:55 it must be normal in every situation. 01:57 It has to be easy, otherwise it won't be used. 02:02 What Microsoft Translator will do, will mean that 02:05 there will be more opportunities to translate, 02:07 and that the proliferation of translation will increase. 02:14 As long as we continue to find new ways to create access to the language, 02:18 then people are going to continue to engage. 02:21 We've reached this tipping point, that gives you hope for the future 02:24 that our language will continue to survive. 02:28 And not only survive, but thrive.- advertisement spot 2019