LEIA is the name that the RAE has taken from its dictionary to implement an initiative that aims to ensure the proper use of Spanish in artificial intelligence (AI), and with the aim of defending, projecting and making a good use of the language Spanish in the digital universe and, especially, in the field of AI and current technologies. Telefónica has been one of the driving companies behind the project, which also has the support of others such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook.
The initiative of the RAE has been officially presented at the closing session of the XVI Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), in an act chaired by their majesties the Kings of Spain, the director of the RAE and president of the ASALE, Santiago Muñoz Machado, who explained the main lines of the LEIA project and recalled that there are two main objectives that have been set: on the one hand, to ensure the proper use of the Spanish language on machines and, on the another, take advantage of artificial intelligence to create tools that promote the correct use of Spanish in human beings.
Telefónica, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook showed in a joint video some of the tools that already exist or will exist very soon as a result of the interaction of language and the resources that the RAE offers with artificial intelligence. The technological partners also made their collaboration in the project official by signing a declaration of intent with which they agree to use RAE materials such as dictionaries, grammar or spelling in the development of their voice assistants. word processors, search engines, chatbots, instant messaging systems, social networks and any other resource, as well as following the criteria on good use of Spanish approved by the Royal Spanish Academy. They have also committed to making Spanish available as the language of use for their products and services, so that citizens can enjoy, in this language, the benefits that artificial intelligence offers, now and in the future. .
The Royal Spanish Academy will develop, in agreement with the companies that signed the declaration, a certificate of good use of Spanish, which it will issue at the request of the companies adhering to the LEIA program, to which other technology companies that so wish may join.
Santiago Muñoz Machado, director of the RAE and president of the ASALE, pointed out in the LEIA presentation that “we are at a crucial moment in which we have to do something that our ancestors of the 18th century did (with humans): standardize the language of machines and artificial intelligence. Their language tends to diversify and action must be taken. The AI speaks English, fundamentally, and we have to ensure that, little by little, Spanish takes an eminent position in the world of artificial intelligence, but also in the general world of networks ”.
Telefónica, in the mouth of its Chief Data Officer, Chema Alonso, believes that technology must learn human interfaces and not the other way around. “Now that we are exposed to an unprecedented technological avalanche, we have to make sure that artificial intelligence not only speaks Spanish so that it is an inclusive technology that all Spanish speakers benefit from, but that it also speaks it correctly. For this reason, it is very positive that through LEIA we can now take advantage of all the RAE’s linguistic resources ”.
At Microsoft, they state that thanks to the collaboration with the RAE, the access of their engineers and researchers to the linguistic and lexicographic resources of the Academy will be facilitated in order to train and improve artificial intelligence technologies applied to the treatment of Spanish. Meanwhile, Amazon says that they have been contributing to the correct use of Spanish for years, incorporating the RAE dictionary into their Kindle e-book reader. And they explain that “with the use of artificial intelligence in Alexa we go a step further since users can consult definitions, ask how a word is written or listen to excerpts from books and poems. Thanks to our voice assistance service, Spanish and culture can reach millions of users around the world in a natural and interactive way ”.
