{"links":{"self":"http://dataportal.arc.gov.au/NCGP/API/grants/DE260100695"},"data":{"type":"grant-details","id":"DE260100695","attributes":{"code":"DE260100695","administering-organisation":"The University of Melbourne","announcement-administering-organisation":"The University of Melbourne","scheme-name":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","grant-status":"Active","funding-commencement-year":2026,"years-funded":3,"project-start-date":"2026-01-01","anticipated-end-date":"2028-12-31","grant-summary":"Harnessing AI to Protect Endangered Languages. According to UNESCO, around 3,000 languages could disappear before the end of the century, at a rate of one every two weeks. This project aims to develop a computational framework to explore and document under-resourced languages. Adapting language models for high-resource languages, like Spanish or English, and linguistic resources available for smaller languages, like Indigenous Australian languages, the project will introduce innovative approaches to develop accurate, efficient, and compact models of language. The models will be incorporated into a tool for translation, analysis, and exploration of texts in under-resourced languages, providing insights on linguistic variation and supporting fieldwork and engagement with native speakers.","funding-current":534268.00,"funding-at-announcement":530028,"investigators-current":[{"title":"Dr","firstName":"Ekaterina","familyName":"Vylomova","roleName":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","roleCode":"DECRA","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0002-4058-5459 "}],"investigators-at-announcement":[{"title":"Dr","firstName":"Ekaterina","familyName":"Vylomova","roleName":"Discovery Early Career Researcher Award","roleCode":"DECRA","isFellowship":true,"orcidIdentifier":"0000-0002-4058-5459 "}],"organisations-current":[{"organisationName":"The University of Melbourne","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"VIC"}],"organisations-at-announcement":[{"organisationName":"The University of Melbourne","roleName":"Administering Organisation","state":"VIC"}],"field-of-research":[{"isPrimary":true,"code":"4602","name":"Artificial Intelligence","type":"FOR20"},{"isPrimary":false,"code":"460208","name":"Natural Language Processing","type":"FOR20"},{"isPrimary":false,"code":"461103","name":"Deep Learning","type":"FOR20"},{"isPrimary":false,"code":"470403","name":"Computational Linguistics","type":"FOR20"}],"socio-economic-objective":[{"code":"130202","name":"Languages and Linguistics","type":"SEO20"},{"code":"130403","name":"Conserving Intangible Cultural Heritage","type":"SEO20"},{"code":"220301","name":"Digital Humanities","type":"SEO20"}],"international-collaboration":["Switzerland","United States of America"],"lief-register":[],"achievement-summary":null,"national-interest-test-statement":"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing our everyday life through the use of AI tools for information retrieval. Unfortunately, as these technologies require large amounts of data, they are mainly available for widely spoken languages such as English or Chinese. Their popularity and daily use increase digital inequality globally, risking the disappearance of smaller languages. The myriads of smaller languages and cultures in the world, especially indigenous languages in Australia, are being left behind by technological progress in language tools. This project advances the technology for smaller languages by combining their translation dictionaries, grammars, and available texts with the power of large language models such as ChatGPT, focusing on mutual correctness and reliability. It will provide a publicly available and open-source tool that will be demonstrated to the public through workshops and be advertised on social media. The tool will facilitate exploration of traditional lexicons and stories and will be valuable for the general public as well as linguists working in language documentation and for typologists who study linguistic variation. This technology is culturally and environmentally important as it helps preserve and revitalise endangered languages and improves understanding of other cultures. It provides economic and social benefits to multicultural Australia by making AI more inclusive and accessible to a larger number of diverse communities."}}}