Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday said that language would play a key role in Artificial Intelligence (AI) models.

Tamil has a rich history. It has to be at the forefront in our journey of embracing emerging technologies, he said, inaugurating the three-day International Tamil Computing Conference ‘KaniTamil24’, organised by the State government and Tamil Virtual Academy, Chennai. “We are going to integrate AI and benefit from it through language. The conference is held with a focus on preparing ourselves and our language towards technological advancements,” he said.

Tamil Nadu is hosting India’s first-ever conference on language technology in the era of AI. An announcement regarding this was made in the State Budget for 2023–24, he added.

He further said: “It is said that AI will enable us to perform unimaginable tasks in the future. When technology grows, and we get the required data on Tamil language, we will get more benefits.”

The Minister recalled that the conference was being organised 25 years after the TamilNet99 conference — held when M.K. Stalin was the Chief Minister — that resulted in the formation of the Tamil Virtual Academy.

Tamil Virtual Academy also signed a memorandum of understanding with AI Singapore at the International KanTamil24 conference on Thursday.

Liu, head of strategy, Partnerships & Growth, AI Singapore, said that the organisation was working with the Tamil Nadu government and Tamil Virtual Academy.

A new organisation focusing on AI models for Tamil, funding assistance to firms focusing on language models, and creating data for Tamil are among the announcements to be made during the course of the conference, a release said.

 

 

 

Media: The Hindu