In this presentation, Professor Marivate will discuss the crucial role of community building in developing technologies for African languages in the age of AI. He will explore the unique challenges and opportunities in fostering collaboration across disciplines and communities, and in building language technologies that not only perform well on benchmarks, but also respect, reflect, and empower the cultures and peoples they represent.

The talk will further examine the limitations of current evaluation practices-what we are able to measure, what we routinely overlook, and how nuances of language, meaning, and cultural context often fall outside standard metrics. Professor Marivate will argue for expanding how we think about evaluation in African language AI, moving beyond narrow performance measures towards approaches that are participatory, culturally grounded, and community-informed.

*Accommodation: If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Email: -- teyei@umich.edu