VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan Partner with GSMA and Barcelona
Supercomputing Centre to Support Use of AI in Local Languages
Baku and Barcelona, 15 May 2024: VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON,
Euronext Amsterdam: VEON), a global digital operator that provides
converged connectivity and online services, is delighted to
announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with Beeline Kazakhstan, the GSMA and the Barcelona Supercomputing
Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputacion (BSC-CNS) to explore
collaboration on the development of artificial intelligence and
language technologies for languages with low digital resources.
The parties will explore collaboration
opportunities focusing on the development of mechanisms and
documentation on language models and AI systems for under-resourced
languages, including the local languages of the countries where
VEON operates.
The MoU was signed by the four parties during M360 Eurasia. The
event, opening in Baku today, welcomes global connectivity leaders
and policymakers for two days of discussion, debate and
networking.
Out of nearly 7000 languages spoken around the
globe, only seven are considered high-resource languages in the
digital world: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Arabic, German
and Japanese. The lack of resources in other languages results in
an AI language gap which leads to sub-optimal user experience in AI
applications, deepens the bias in AI models and risks deepening the
digital divide in AI technologies.
Catalan is spoken by 10 million people, spread
across various parts of Spain and other areas of Europe, such as
Andorra and Alghero. For this reason, the BSC Language Technologies
unit has as a priority generating digital resources to guarantee
the presence of Catalan in the digital world, while making these
resources useful for other languages with the same objective.
Operating in countries that are home to 7% of
the global population that mostly speak under-sourced languages,
VEON is committed to addressing the AI language gap by supporting
the usage of low-resource languages in AI, starting with Kazakhstan
where Beeline Kazakhstan’s IT subsidiary QazCode already launched
Kaz-RoBERTA-conversational – a Kazakh-language AI module supporting
customer service in Beeline Kazakhstan’s digital applications.
“Artificial Intelligence is the next game
changer in the history of technology, and it is in our hands to
design and develop it in a way that promotes inclusion for all.
Enabling low-resource languages to be a part of the world of AI
empowers hundreds of millions of people around the globe by
addressing the current shortcomings of the AI landscape. We are
delighted to be the first operator group to partner with Barcelona
Supercomputing Center and the GSMA to explore opportunities to
raise to this challenge.” said Kaan Terzioglu, Group CEO of
VEON.
“Beeline Kazakhstan is the leading operator in
AI technologies in the markets where VEON operates. Having
previously developed AI-based solutions in Kazakh language, Beeline
Kazakhstan and Qazcode are well aware of the challenges and
opportunities that come with Kazakhstan’s transformation into the
age of AI. We are extremely excited to partner with Barcelona
Supercomputing Center and the GSMA, bringing international
experience to our journey of developing new use cases for
Kazakh-language AI applications.” said Evgeny Nastradin,
CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan.
“The development of artificial intelligence also
generates gaps between languages. It is important to close them.
For this reason, we are making our knowledge and resources
available. The work through the Aina Alliance keeps growing and has
allowed us to sign a strategic agreement with the GSMA. This is one
more step for making our open-source AI expertise accessible to the
international community. BSC has published a wide-range number of
datasets and open-source models through the Aina project, leading
the path into the open-source AI resources
availability.”said Mateo Valero Cortes, Director of the
BSC-CNS.
“The project with VEON and Beeline Kazakhstan is the first on
our exciting journey with the BSC. We now call on industry to join
us and work together to reduce the disparity in developing and
applying AI technologies across different languages. This disparity
exacerbates the AI language gap, and the challenges that come with
it, including siloed innovation and widening the digital divide.
The Aina Alliance aims to ensure that no language is left
behind as the world advances into an increasingly AI-driven
future.” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer of
the GSMA.
Key to the partnership will be the GSMA Foundry innovation
accelerator, an initiative that brings together mobile operators
and the wider technology industry, to help members forge the
digital future by rapidly developing real-world solutions to
industry challenges.
Cooperation will take place within the scope of
Aina Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Catalonia
and the GSMA, which builds on the Aina Project promoted and
financed by the Government of Catalonia, and which seeks to support
the presence of non-global languages in artificial intelligence
models, enabling speakers of all languages to participate fully in
the evolution of the digital world. VEON is the first pilot in the
partnership, with the Aina Alliance now inviting other mobile
operator partners and organisations to take part in addressing the
AI Language gap through collaborative effort.
About Barcelona Supercomputing Center -
Centro Nacional de Supercomputacion Barcelona
Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS)
is the national supercomputing centre in Spain. They specialise
in high performance computing (HPC) and
manage MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in
Europe. BSC is at the service of the international scientific
community and of industry that requires HPC resources. Their
multidisciplinary research team and our computational facilities
–including MareNostrum– make BSC an international centre of
excellence in e-Science.
BSC has been successful in attracting talent,
and their research focuses on four fields: Computer Sciences, Life
Sciences, Earth Sciences and Computer Applications in Science and
Engineering. The research lines are developed within the framework
of European Union research funding programmes, Spanish and Catalan
public research calls and collaborations with leading
companies.
About the GSMAThe GSMA is a
global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover,
develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business
environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full
power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive.
Representing mobile operators and organisations across the mobile
ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its
members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry
Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes
advancing policy, tackling today’s biggest societal challenges,
underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile
work, and providing the world’s largest platform to convene the
mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events.
We invite you to find out more at
www.gsma.com
About Beeline Kazakhstan &
QazCodeBeeline Kazakhstan is the leading player in the
Kazakhstan’s telecoms industry, serving over 11 million consumers
on its mobile and fixed networks and with its digital services in
finance, entertainment and enterprise solutions such as
Simply, izi, hitter and BeeTV. Its software company
QazCode is among the largest software development companies in
Kazakhstan with a 700-strong team that includes 350
developers. QazCode builds solutions such as telco processes
automation, gamification, entertainment, and IT productivity with
an AI-first approach.
About VEON VEON is a digital
operator that provides converged connectivity and digital services
to nearly 160 million customers. Operating across six countries
that are home to more than 7% of the world’s population – Pakistan,
Ukraine, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan – VEON
is transforming lives through technology-driven services that
empower individuals and drive economic growth. Headquartered in
Amsterdam, VEON is listed on NASDAQ and Euronext.
For more information visit: www.veon.com
Disclaimer This release
contains “forward-looking statements,” as the phrase is defined in
Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and
include statements relating to, among other things, VEON’s
strategy, investment and partnership plans. Forward-looking
statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many
of which VEON cannot predict with accuracy and some of which VEON
might not anticipate. The forward-looking statements contained in
this release speak only as of the date of this release. VEON does
not undertake to publicly update, except as required by U.S.
federal securities laws, any forward-looking statement to reflect
events or circumstances after such dates or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events.
Contact
Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de
Supercomputacion BSC Communicationcommunication@bsc.es
GSMAGSMA Press Officepressoffice@gsma.com
Beeline KazakhstanYelena MukhsinovaHead of
Communicationsymukhsinova@beeline.kz
VEONHande Asik Group Director of Communications
pr@veon.com
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