Site icon fundsforNGOs

Apply for the Natural Language Processing (NLP) Program

Language Revitalization Planning Program – Canada

Deadline: 23-Aug-2024

The Lacuna Fund is inviting applications for the Natural Language Processing (NLP) Program to support efforts to develop open and accessible datasets for machine learning applications related to Natural Language Processing (NLP) for low-resource languages and cultures in Africa and Latin America.

The ability to communicate and be understood in one’s own language variety and cultural context is fundamental to digital and societal inclusion. Natural language processing techniques have the potential to enable AI applications that facilitate digital inclusion and improvements in education, finance, healthcare, agriculture, communication, and responses to natural hazards, among others. Many advances in both fundamental and applied NLP have stemmed from openly licensed and publicly available datasets.

However, such datasets are scarce to non-existent for many African and Latin-American languages, excluding these populations from the benefits of NLP. Many current machine learning (ML) models are informed by Anglo-centric and/or translated datasets, lacking culturally relevant nuances and creating biased or unusable models for communities in Africa and Latin America. Where relevant datasets do exist, they are often based on religious or judiciary texts of the past, leading to outdated language and bias. There is a need for openly accessible datasets to facilitate NLP technologies for low-resource languages in Africa and Latin America and support the development of robust and culturally appropriate language datasets that cater to the specific needs of underrepresented communities.

Funding Information
Need 
Eligibility Criteria

For more information, visit Lacuna Fund.

Exit mobile version