The GSMA - together with Airtel , the African Population for Health Research Center APHRC , Awarri , Axian Telecom, Cassava Technologies , Ethio Telecom, Masakhane African Languages Hub, Lelapa AI, MTN , Orange , Pawa AI, Qhala , the World Sandbox Alliance and Vodacom - today announced a continent-wide collaboration to strengthen Africa's AI ecosystem by developing inclusive African AI language models. The initiative aims to crowd in resources and expertise to address gaps in data, compute, talent and policy, ensuring African languages, cultures and knowledge are fully represented in the global digital future.
Under the shared ambition "AI Language Models in Africa, By Africa, For Africa", the initiative seeks to close the region's language gap in artificial intelligence, ensuring that Africa's voices, cultures and knowledge are fully represented in the global digital future. The GSMA recognises existing efforts that have made great strides in addressing AI adoption in Africa however, foundational challenges remain and it is calling on ecosystem partners to join collectively to align efforts and further accelerate AI adoption in Africa.
Today, the world's leading LLMs are built around a handful of global languages, limiting access and relevance for billions of people whose linguistic and cultural diversity remains underrepresented online. As cited in GSMA's AI for Africa report series, in Africa alone, more than 2,000 languages are spoken, yet only a fraction are supported in digital systems or AI models. This lack of inclusion risks widening existing digital and economic divides.
