The Gates Foundation and several organizations in the global AI ecosystem announced a joint commitment aimed at narrowing one of artificial intelligence's biggest accessibility gaps: enabling people around the world to use AI services safely and effectively in the languages they use every day. According to Sina Finance, the first 60 signatories include OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Nvidia.

Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, said it is very important to make AI tools serve everyone and support the languages people actually use. He said that even some relatively well-resourced African languages still face clear gaps in AI support, and that when AI tools cannot understand a person's everyday language, a mistake can have serious consequences.

The article said that among roughly 7,000 languages worldwide, only a small share has enough data and resources to support more mature AI capabilities. Many other languages are often described as low-resource languages and remain underrepresented in the data, tools, and evaluation benchmarks used for AI development and testing.

The challenge is not only about text translation. The article said voice is especially important in situations where keyboards and text interfaces are inconvenient or difficult to use, because it allows people to communicate directly with AI in natural language. It also said language limitations are not just an inconvenience, since dialects, slang, idioms, and cultural context can affect meaning and may create serious consequences in high-accuracy settings.

Closing this gap could help billions of people access AI-enabled information and services more easily and effectively, including in health care, education, agriculture, financial services, and public services.