Behind every emerging technology is a great idea propelling it forward. In the new Microsoft Research Podcast series, Ideas, members of the research community at Microsoft discuss the beliefs that animate their research, the experiences and thinkers that inform it, and the positive human impact it targets. 

In this episode, host Gretchen Huizinga talks with Principal Researcher Kalika Bali. Inspired by an early vision of “talking computers” and a subsequent career in linguistics, Bali has spent the last two decades bringing the two together. Aided by recent advances in large language models and motivated by her belief that everyone should have access to AI in their own language, Bali and her teams are building language technology applications that they hope will bring the benefits of generative AI to under-resourced and underserved language communities around the world.

Learn more:

• The State and Fate of Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion in the NLP World | Publication, July 2020
• Project VeLLM | Project page
• Kahani: Visual Storytelling | Project page
• Kahani: Visual Storytelling through Culturally Nuanced Images | Microsoft Research Forum | Episode 1, January 2024
• Teachers in India help Microsoft Research design AI tool for creating great classroom content | Microsoft Research blog, October 2023
• Digital Labor: Project Karya | Project page
• Village by village, creating the building blocks for AI tools with work that also educates | Microsoft Source Asia blog, February 2024