Orange plans to collaborate with local startups and technology companies to drive AI innovation. Credit: TippaPatt / Shutterstock.

French telecoms operator Orange has partnered with OpenAI and Meta to develop custom AI language models tailored for African regional languages.

This initiative is part of Orange’s efforts for digital inclusion and growth in the Middle East and Africa.

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Planned to start in the first half of next year, the project aims to allow customers to interact naturally in their local languages for customer support and sales.

The project will initially focus on incorporating regional languages Wolof and Pulaar in West Africa into AI models such as Meta’s Llama text model and OpenAI’s Whisper speech model.

By fine-tuning AI models, Orange seeks to make AI accessible to all.

In its press statement, Orange said that its long-term aim is to recognise all African languages across its 18-country footprint in the region.

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An Orange spokesperson was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We’re used to working with these countries, so we have experience with these languages and in developing our own apps in these languages for customer service.”

Orange plans to provide these open-source AI models with a free licence for non-commercial use, benefiting public health, education, and other services.

The company also aims to collaborate with local startups and technology companies to drive AI innovation.

In addition to language recognition, an agreement with OpenAI will give Orange direct access to its models, marking the first such availability in Europe with data processing in European data centres.

This partnership will also grant Orange early access to OpenAI’s latest AI models, advancing AI-based voice interactions with customers.