Science & technology | Polyglot machines

Why AI needs to learn new languages

Efforts are under way to make AI fluent in more than just English

A digital globe with a characters from a number of different languages in the background
Illustration: Nick Kempton
|Abu Dhabi and Chennai

ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, an American firm, can give passable answers to questions on everything from nuclear engineering to Stoic philosophy. Or at least, it can in English. The latest version, ChatGPT-4, scored 85% on a common question-and-answer test. In other languages it is less impressive. When taking the test in Telugu, an Indian language spoken by nearly 100m people, for instance, it scored just 62%.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Sending AI to language school”

From the January 27th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Dr Dorothy Bishop.

Elon Musk is causing problems for the Royal Society

His continued membership has led to a high-profile resignation

Legal Amazon preservation area borders the field for soybean planting.

Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions

Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier


Robot mixing at Toyota Research Institute.

Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques

They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes


Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you

A mystery is finally being solved

Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever

Concerns about some of their business models are building

The two types of human laugh

One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else