The joy and celebration of Kannada Rajyotsava are in our hearts once again. It’s the time of year when red and yellow flags fly high and Kannada songs are heard everywhere. This November 1st, during a Rajyotsava event, our state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, made an important announcement. “The age of Information Technology is now transforming into the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We must prepare Kannada for this new technical challenge,” he declared. These aren’t just symbolic words. This is about the very future of our Kannada language. In this new era, we have to ask: Is AI a threat to Kannada, or is it a helping hand? How can we actually use AI for Kannada’s growth? Let’s take a look at the projects that the Government of India, the Karnataka government, and our local institutions and universities have started to help Kannada grow using AI.
Is AI a Threat or a Friend ?
Many people share a common opinion: “If AI comes, everything will be done in English, and Kannada will die!”. This fear isn’t entirely baseless. Here’s why :
- Most popular AI models (like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) are trained primarily on English-language data.
- A major reason for this is that there simply isn’t enough Kannada data available for these AI models to learn from.
- Because of this, popular AI models are not yet ready to properly understand Kannada’s grammar, its depth, its cultural nuances, or its wide range of pronunciations and dialects.
- The result? Ordinary people might feel that “AI doesn’t know Kannada properly” and start moving away from using Kannada in their digital lives, like for online banking or shopping.
But, if we “train” this very same AI correctly, it can do wonderful things for Kannada and become a powerful helping hand.
How AI Can Be a Friend to Kannada ?
If we guide it properly, AI can be a huge benefit to our language :
- A Private Tutor: For people who want to learn Kannada, or even for our own children, AI can act as a personal teacher. It can help with Q&A, explain lessons, and even analyze poetry.
- Preserving Our Heritage: AI can help us digitize our old Kannada literature—like Vachanas, Dasara Padagalu, and classic poems. It can analyze them and, most importantly, preserve them for future generations.
- A Bridge to the World: AI can easily translate from Kannada to other languages, and from other languages back into Kannada. This helps our language and culture reach more people.
- New Life for Old Stories: AI can take old Kannada poems, stories, and folk songs and turn them into animations or audio content, making them engaging for the new generation.
Our Responsibility : Making AI Work for Kannada
To make all these good things a reality, all of us—you, me, and the government—must take action.
- We Must Use Kannada More: We need to increase our use of Kannada with AI. We should use it for our questions, our searches, and our writing. We must give Kannada priority.
- Digitize Our Knowledge: The government and our universities must step up to digitize Kannada literature, articles, and textbooks. This data is the “food” that AI needs for training.
- Promote Kannada AI: Our schools, newspapers, TV channels, and blogs should all encourage the use of Kannada AI models. Why? Because the more we use it, the better the AI gets at understanding and speaking Kannada.
- Teach AI All of Kannada: It’s not enough for AI to just learn the Kannada spoken in Bengaluru and Mysuru. Kannada has over twenty different regional varieties and many sub-languages (like Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, etc.). We must all teach AI these different varieties and use them often.
So, the answer is simple. AI is not a threat; it can be a supportive force. If we Kannadigas shape this AI with a “Kannada mind,” our language will not only survive but grow even richer and find new life in this new technology era.
Are There Any Special AI Models for Kannada ?
Right now, many global models (like ChatGPT and Gemini) are trained in Kannada and can answer most common questions. You can chat with them in Kannada. However, models being built by the Indian government or private Indian companies—like Bhashini, Sarvam, AI4Bharat, and Krutim—are likely to be more helpful for us. This is because they are designed to better understand Kannada’s specific grammar, its many dialects, and its diverse daily usage.
There are also models being built specifically for Kannada, trained mainly on Kannada data, such as Ambari, KannadaGPT, and Kannada Llama. These are still in development, but in the future, they will help us with translation, business, and research, all in Kannada. The sad part is, as of this writing, these special Indian and Kannada models are not yet easily available for the general public to use, unlike the big global ones. They are mostly limited to experiments.
Here is a simple, non-technical translation of the article, ready for a blog.
The Contribution of Artificial Intelligence to the Development of Kannada
The joy and celebration of Kannada Rajyotsava are in our hearts once again. It’s the time of year when red and yellow flags fly high and Kannada songs are heard everywhere.
This November 1st, during a Rajyotsava event, our state’s Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, made an important announcement. “The age of Information Technology is now transforming into the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We must prepare Kannada for this new technical challenge,” he declared.
These aren’t just symbolic words. This is about the very future of our Kannada language.
In this new era, we have to ask: Is AI a threat to Kannada, or is it a helping hand? How can we actually use AI for Kannada’s growth?
Let’s take a look at the projects that the Government of India, the Karnataka government, and our local institutions and universities have started to help Kannada grow using AI.
Is AI a Threat or a Friend?
Many people share a common opinion: “If AI comes, everything will become English, and Kannada will die!”.
This fear isn’t entirely baseless. Here’s why:
- Most popular AI models (like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) are trained primarily on English-language data.
- A major reason for this is that there simply isn’t enough Kannada data available for these AI models to learn from.
- Because of this, popular AI models are not yet ready to properly understand Kannada’s grammar, its depth, its cultural nuances, or its wide range of pronunciations and dialects.
- The result? Ordinary people might feel that “AI doesn’t know Kannada properly” and start moving away from using Kannada in their digital lives, like for online banking or shopping.
But, if we “train” this very same AI correctly, it can do wonderful things for Kannada and become a powerful helping hand.
How AI Can Be a Friend to Kannada
If we guide it properly, AI can be a huge benefit to our language:
- A Private Tutor: For people who want to learn Kannada, or even for our own children, AI can act as a personal teacher. It can help with Q&A, explain lessons, and even analyze poetry.
- Preserving Our Heritage: AI can help us digitize our old Kannada literature—like Vachanas, Dasara Padagalu, and classic poems. It can analyze them and, most importantly, preserve them for future generations.
- A Bridge to the World: AI can easily translate from Kannada to other languages, and from other languages back into Kannada. This helps our language and culture reach more people.
- New Life for Old Stories: AI can take old Kannada poems, stories, and folk songs and turn them into animations or audio content, making them engaging for the new generation.
Our Responsibility: Making AI Work for Kannada
To make all these good things a reality, all of us—you, me, and the government—must take action.
- We Must Use Kannada More: We need to increase our use of Kannada with AI. We should use it for our questions, our searches, and our writing. We must give Kannada priority.
- Digitize Our Knowledge: The government and our universities must step up to digitize Kannada literature, articles, and textbooks. This data is the “food” that AI needs for training.
- Promote Kannada AI: Our schools, newspapers, TV channels, and blogs should all encourage the use of Kannada AI models. Why? Because the more we use it, the better the AI gets at understanding and speaking Kannada.
- Teach AI All of Kannada: It’s not enough for AI to just learn the Kannada spoken in Bengaluru and Mysuru. Kannada has over twenty different regional varieties and many sub-languages (like Tulu, Konkani, Kodava, etc.). We must all teach AI these different varieties and use them often.
So, the answer is simple. AI is not a threat; it can be a supportive force. If we Kannadigas shape this AI with a “Kannada mind,” our language will not only survive but grow even richer and find new life in this new technology era.
Are There Any Special AI Models for Kannada?
Right now, many global models (like ChatGPT and Gemini) are trained in Kannada and can answer most common questions. You can chat with them in Kannada.
However, models being built by the Indian government or private Indian companies—like Bhashini, Sarvam, AI4Bharat, and Krutim—are likely to be more helpful for us. This is because they are designed to better understand Kannada’s specific grammar, its many dialects, and its diverse daily usage.
There are also models being built specifically for Kannada, trained mainly on Kannada data, such as Ambari, KannadaGPT, and Kannada Llama. These are still in development, but in the future, they will help us with translation, business, and research, all in Kannada.
The sad part is, as of this writing, these special Indian and Kannada models are not yet easily available for the general public to use, unlike the big global ones. They are mostly limited to experiments.
Projects Already Using AI to Help Kannada :
The central and state governments have started many projects to prepare Kannada for the technology age. The goal is to use AI to create equal opportunities and inclusion for everyone.
Here are some of the most important projects :
- Kalika Deepa: This project uses AI to help students in government schools improve their reading, math, and language skills, and to raise their overall learning levels.
- Tarangini: This program gives out AI-powered ‘Alexa-like’ assistant devices, especially to citizens with disabilities (particularly the visually impaired). These devices provide them with information using voice commands.
- AI Shruti: This is a speech-to-text technology developed by the central government’s National Informatics Centre (NIC). It’s already being used in six different Karnataka government projects to help document and analyze administrative meetings and public speeches, all in Kannada.
- AI in Agriculture: Back in 2017, the government signed a deal with Microsoft India to use AI, cloud technology, and advanced analytics to help increase farmers’ incomes.
- Fake News Detection: The Karnataka government is planning to use an AI-based system to detect fake news and stop the spread of misinformation in our society.
Using AI to Increase Kannada in the Justice System :-
The Supreme Court of India and the Karnataka High Court have also started projects to increase the use of Kannada in our legal system. The main goals are to translate English court judgments and legal records into Kannada, automate the work of court staff, and digitize all arguments and court filings. Key projects include :
- E-Courts: This is a large Government of India project to digitize the entire justice system to make it transparent, fast, and easy for citizens to access. They are now starting to add AI technology to this system. AI will play a huge role in making legal services available in all Indian languages, including Kannada. The next step is to add AI-based speech-to-text (voice-to-text) technology for Kannada.
- SUPACE: This is an AI-powered research portal built to help judges and legal researchers with their work. There are plans to make it work in 18 major Indian languages, including Kannada.
- SUVAS: This is an AI translation software developed by the Supreme Court to translate its judgments from English into regional languages, including Kannada. This will soon be used in all High Courts as part of the E-Courts project.
- Adalat AI: This is a technology from a private company that is already being used in Karnataka’s courts. Judges are using it for voice recognition (speech-to-text) and to automate the creation of documents.
The Final Word :
For Kannada, AI is not just about new technology; it is a path to a new rebirth for our language. The government, schools, private companies, and the tech industry are all working together to bring Kannada into the digital age. From education to the justice system, from farmers to students, AI is starting to work in Kannada. Projects like “Kalika Deepa,” “AI Shruti,” and “Adalat AI” are real-world examples of this. Now, it is our turn. We must search, write, and speak in Kannada when we use AI. Why? Because the more we use Kannada with AI, the more AI learns Kannada. The more it learns, the stronger it gets, and the better it will be at responding to us and in our language. Therefore, AI is not a threat. It is set to become a powerful, supportive force for the growth of Kannada.