Gates Foundation, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia and 60 Organizations Pledge to Bring AI to Over 3 Billion People in Their Own Languages
On the evening of September 21, the Gates Foundation, together with 60 founding signatories including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia, announced a joint commitment to close the AI accessibility gap and enable people around the world to use AI services safely and effectively in their everyday languages. The goal is to help more than 3 billion people use AI in their own languages and by voice within five years.
Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, said it is important that AI tools serve everyone and support the languages people actually use. He noted that even some relatively well-supported African languages still lack adequate AI support, and that when AI tools cannot understand a person's everyday language, a mistake could have serious consequences. He expressed confidence that with the right leadership and push, the problem can be addressed in a relatively short time.
Of the roughly 7,000 languages in the world, only a small number have enough data and resources to support mature AI capabilities. Many other languages, often called low-resource languages, remain underrepresented in the data, tools and benchmarks used to develop and test AI. As a result, speakers of these languages may face lower accuracy, limited usefulness, or systems that struggle to understand their actual ways of speaking.
The challenge is not only about text translation. Voice is especially important in settings where keyboard input and text interfaces are inconvenient or difficult to use, allowing people to interact with AI directly through natural speech. Dialects, slang, idioms and cultural context can all shape meaning, and in high-stakes settings these differences can have serious consequences. Closing this gap could make AI-powered information and services more accessible to billions of people, with potential benefits across health care, education, agriculture, financial services and public services.
