Google is rolling out a new voice in New Zealand’s version of Maps that will speak English with a Kiwi accent and be able to properly pronounce te reo Māori names for the first time.
Caroline Rainsford, country director for Google NZ, said the company was excited to make the announcement.
“By next week, New Zealanders will be able to wake up and enjoy the proper pronunciation in Google Maps which is a product we know New Zealanders love. So very exciting.”
The new feature reportedly pronounces Māori place names correctly. (Source: 1News)
Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr, chief executive of Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo Māori–Māori Language Commission, said when people hear the correct way to pronounce place names they will say them properly, ensuring te reo is visible in the cultural fabric of the country.
“I was returning home one day and was confused by the pronunciation of the name Ngaio, right? Because it came up as ‘N-gayo’.
“So I think for the future of the language it's really, really important that our children, and other children, and other people who are learning te reo Māori, hear the language pronounced properly everywhere.”
The voice in Google Maps is a text-to-speech model and it’s due to advances in AI that this version could be delivered, said Rainsford.
“How it works is we've actually spent about six months where a New Zealand AI-voice is trained using recordings of an actual Kiwi voice actor. So the Kiwi voice actor was chosen because they had a Kiwi English accent but they also had excellent pronunciation of te reo,” she said.
Apanui-Barr said it was important that the voice actors involved had the expertise to deliver.
“We worked really, really hard with Google to bring in some really, really wonderful Māori people to help out with the project. I won't name them here, but we were really, really pleased with the quality of people they brought in and the kind of checking in support for those people that we provided.”
For most Google Maps users, if you have the New Zealand English voice selected the change will automatically take place once it’s available.
Google partnership with Te Taura Whiri
Both Apanui-Barr and Rainsford said one of the biggest challenges they faced was how the partnership would work.
It’s a bit of a clash of cultures, said Apanui. “You've got an entity, a public service entity working with a media giant from overseas so it took a while to sort the relationship out, but once we got there it was fine, and we've worked really, really well together.”
Rainsford said the project started in 2022 and a partnership agreement was signed with Te Taura Whiri a year later.
“You're combining linguists on Te Taura Whiri side with engineers at Google and it was just about bringing our two worlds together.
“But I can tell you the partnership is in such a fantastic space and we're really looking forward to celebrating this incredible milestone together because we are both passionate about raising the profile of te reo and making sure that even if you're a capable speaking, or you're just learning having it in your car, or your phone every day, is just going to make a meaningful difference for New Zealanders and the language, so we're very happy.”
Who owns the IP?
Apanui-Barr said the agreement over IP was initiated by Google in the early stages and it was decided that Te Taura Whiri would be the “guardians” of the Māori lexicon model until a group of Māori specialists – in IT and te reo Māori – can be established and entrusted to oversee the model.
“Here's the thing I've been saying for a long time, Te Taura Whiri does not own the Māori language, Māori people do. We are the custodians of formal te reo Māori because we license translators and interpreters, so we set those conventions - but the language doesn't belong to us, it belongs to our people.”
Rainsford said Google licenses the use of the data for the purposes of the text-to-speech model.
“In the markets in which we operate in we don't ever aspire to own the indigenous language voice model. We obviously just want to be able to use it to make sure that we're really lifting the profile of the language within the country which is what we're so excited about.”
As technology continues to evolve, particularly with AI, Apanui-Barr said Māori need to engage.
“We need to be involved in the development of AI, particularly as it pertains to the language because you can't tell me that a machine can have more wairua than a person, and making mistakes is part of the human condition, right?
“So, I think, one of the things that we want to be ensured of going forward in te reo Māori is that people make the important decisions.”
He said there were both challenges and advantages in AI when it comes to te reo Māori.
“We have worries about the quality of translations, we have worries about the use of AI to do translations, but the one thing we need to do is we need to do a bit of catching up and as a collective.
“Māori need to sit down and say, OK, this is where we want to go with AI and this is how we want it to affect our language, and we need to take back some control around that even though in some cases the horse has bolted.”
SHARE ME