Orange, the telecommunications and digital service provider, has partnered with artificial intelligence (AI) research firm, OpenAI and Meta, the multinational tech conglomerate to drive digital inclusion and growth in the Middle East and Africa (MEA).
Working with these firms, Orange will fine-tune its AI large language models (LLMs) to understand regional languages in Africa that are not understood by any GenAI model. In doing so, this will allow customers who previously had no ways of communicating with Orange, the ability to access its customer support and sales services. The initiative, commencing in the first half of 2025 will initially focus on incorporating regional languages, namely Wolof and Pulaar, spoken by 16 and six million people, respectively, in West Africa.
These open-source AI models will also be provided externally by Orange with a free license for non-commercial use such as for public health, public education, and many other services. Orange intends to help drive AI innovation in these regional languages including by collaborating on these new AI models with local startups and other technology companies, and by doing so, to mitigate the growing digital divide faced by people all across the African continent.
The start of greater inclusion
Orange’s long-term goal is to work with many AI technology providers to enable future models to recognise all African languages spoken and written across Orange’s 18-country footprint in the region.
By fine-tuning AI models such as OpenAI’s ‘Whisper’ speech model and Meta’s ‘Llama’ text model with diverse examples of these languages, we will enable them to better understand these regional languages. Orange’s vision is to make AI and other related advances accessible to all, including illiterate populations, who are currently unable to benefit from the potential of artificial intelligence. The initiative is a blueprint for how AI can be used to benefit those currently excluded.
Improving access to AI
In addition to this regional African language recognition project, OpenAI and Orange have signed an agreement that will provide Orange with direct access to OpenAI’s models with data processing and hosting in European datacenters. This will enable Orange to work on improving existing solutions across its footprint.
Furthermore, this new partnership will also facilitate early access to OpenAI’s latest and most advanced AI models, enabling the realisation of other key use cases such as AI-based voice interactions with Orange customers.
Orange is focused on delivering ‘Responsible AI,’ where the company carefully chooses the most appropriate solution for each AI use case. This approach means only using the latest LLMs where they are necessary and otherwise choosing simpler and cheaper solutions, thereby minimising the impact on the environment as well as reducing cost for the many valuable AI use cases deployed across Orange.
Orange also is playing a key role in the development of the European AI ecosystem with its promotion of open-source AI projects with the goal of making AI affordably accessible for all.