Theme: Unlock the Power of East African Languages: Innovate, Connect, and Build Inclusive Language Technology for Tomorrow.
The 2025 AI for African Languages Conference brought together researchers, practitioners, and innovators in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to tackle one of Africa’s most pressing technological challenges; the underrepresentation of African languages in modern AI systems.
Held at the Four Points by Sheraton, the event served as a collaborative space for experts from across the continent to share research, explore new technologies, and discuss the future of inclusive language innovation. The focus was particularly strong on East Africa’s diverse linguistic landscape, aiming to bridge the “low-resource” gap that continues to limit access to AI tools for many African languages.
A Landmark Launch: Uganda’s First Multilingual AI Model
A major highlight of the conference was the launch of Sunflower, Uganda’s first multilingual large language model, developed by Sunbird AI. Officially unveiled by Dr. Aminah Zawedde, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, and John Quinn, Research Director at Sunbird AI, the model marks a groundbreaking milestone in African language technology.
Sunflower understands and communicates in 30+ Ugandan languages, enabling translation, summarization, and question answering in local contexts. Trained on books, radio archives, and community data, it mirrors the authentic ways Ugandans speak and share knowledge. Impressively, it outperforms global AI models in 24 of the 31 languages.
Dr. Zawedde described the launch as “not just a technological achievement but a cultural one,” emphasizing the need to ensure that no African language is left behind in the digital age. She encouraged young innovators to create tools that break language barriers and make technology truly inclusive for all Ugandans.
Voices from the Field
During a discussion on societal impact, Dr. Joyce Nabende, Director of the Makerere Centre for Artificial Intelligence, highlighted the real-world importance of language technologies. She illustrated how NLP tools could empower citizens ; for example, ensuring access to justice for those who cannot communicate in English within legal systems.
“If everything is perfect, text, ASR and models – how would these tools be useful to society? Imagine a widow in court who doesn’t speak English; this technology could give her a voice,” Dr.
Nabende noted.
Advancing Research and Collaboration
The workshop invited submissions and discussions across a wide range of NLP themes including:
- Data collection and annotation for low-resource African languages
- Machine translation and cross-lingual learning
- African speech technologies (ASR, TTS)
- Ethical considerations and bias in NLP models
- Applications of NLP for social good in education, healthcare, agriculture, and cultural preservation
- Large Language Models (LLMs) for multilingual understanding
A Step Toward Linguistic Inclusion
Uganda’s linguistic diversity, with over 40 living languages and a diversity score of 0.928 — has long represented both cultural richness and technological challenge. The Sunflower model and the broader conference discussions mark a bold step forward, showing how African-led innovation can make AI systems more representative and inclusive.
The AI for African Languages Conference 2025 reaffirmed a shared vision: a future where technology understands every African voice.
This initiative is a partnership between Makerere University Centre for Artificial Intelligence (Mak-AI), Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and is supported by IDRC (International Development Research Centre) and FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK).
