AI Singapore (AISG) has partnered with Sony Research to collaborate on research for the SEA-LION (Southeast Asian Languages In One Network) family of large language models (LLMs).
It is an open-sourced LLM more representative of Southeast Asia’s cultural contexts and linguistic nuances.
The research will start by focusing on the Tamil language spoken by 60 to 85 million people worldwide, particularly in India and Southeast Asia.
It will be conducted through Sony AI – a division of Sony Research.
Under the agreement, both parties will explore testing and feedback of the SEA-LION model, particularly for Tamil and other Southeast Asian languages.
The plan is to share best practices on LLM development and research methodologies.
AI Singapore’s senior director of AI products, Leslie Teo, said the integration of the SEA-LION model, with Tamil language capabilities, holds the potential to boost the performance of new solutions.
The team is eager to contribute to the testing and refinement of the SEA-LION models for Tamil and other Southeast Asian languages, while also sharing expertise and best practices in LLM development, Teo added.
Sony Research’s strong presence in India provides a foundation for the exploration.
This will extend to its expertise in LLM development for Indian languages, including Tamil, and recent research in speech generation, content analysis, and recognition.