Microsoft has announced the launch of the LINGUA competition, an initiative aimed at promoting greater representation of European languages in artificial intelligence. The announcement was made by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s Vice President and President, through a company blog post. The competition extends an invitation to Ukrainian organizations to take part in the program.
The LINGUA competition seeks participation from researchers, NGOs, cultural institutions, and startups to develop high-quality open datasets that can help strengthen the digital presence of underrepresented languages, including Ukrainian, in the AI ecosystem. The initiative is being implemented in coordination with the APERTUS project, led by EPFL and ETH Zürich, and in consultation with the Council of Europe.
Selected projects will be provided with funding of up to $50,000 for data collection, Azure compute credits for up to two years, and technical support with collaboration opportunities from Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, EPFL, and ETH Zürich. Additionally, participants will receive media support through Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab ecosystem and its partner networks.
