The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been steadily increasing in Turkey and around the world over the past three years, with many AI-powered applications becoming part of people’s daily lives.
AI-supported initiatives have also begun to emerge in efforts to promote and teach the Kurdish language. One such initiative is Kurdolingo, an AI-powered platform that was recently introduced. Kurdolingo not only enables users to learn Kurdish but also offers translation from Kurdish into many languages worldwide. In addition, the platform includes Kurdish audiobooks and learning tools designed to make language acquisition easier for children.
Cihad Ilbaş, the founder of the AI-supported Kurdish platform Kurdolingo, spoke to ANF about both the platform itself and the broader development of artificial intelligence worldwide.
AI marks a new stage since the Industrial Revolution
Cihad Ilbaş said that artificial intelligence represents one of the most significant stages humanity has reached since the Industrial Revolution and emphasized that this development will continue. Ilbaş said: “First, humanity moved from human labor to the power of tools and machines. Then, with computers, we transitioned to the power of knowledge. Now, this knowledge power has merged with robots that humanity has dreamed of for centuries, perhaps even millennia. In fact, this is not entirely new in our lives; it has existed since ChatGPT-3 over the past two years. Systems that perform operations on our behalf have existed since the first computers. For example, a calculator was also a form of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence was essentially defined as the ability of a tool or object without consciousness to perform certain cognitive functions. The English word for computer refers to a calculating device, which also stems from this idea. It is based on performing certain calculations to process and generate information.
Until now, this has mostly taken place through text, but it is now also happening through audio and video. Through coding, computers are now capable of performing these functions as well. This is what we generally refer to as artificial intelligence.
When we look at its uses, we see that it serves many different purposes. In recent years, people have mostly used it for writing texts, for psychological counseling, or even as a dietitian. In other words, they use it to access services they cannot afford, free of charge.”
AI has developed through data of ordinary people
Cihad Ilbaş said that the widespread use of artificial intelligence is both natural and necessary but warned that its extensive use has also enabled companies to collect data from large numbers of people. Ilbaş said: “Its spread is natural and necessary because artificial intelligence needs data in order to develop. When it was first offered for free, people did not understand why it was being made so widely accessible. There is a common saying that if a product is free, then you are the product, and there is some truth to that.
Until ChatGPT-3, the artificial intelligence models developed by OpenAI were not widely known. There had been earlier versions, but they were not advancing rapidly because there was not enough data. The data they used also led to legal disputes with many media organizations. From The New York Times to several other American outlets, lawsuits were filed on the grounds that their data had been used to train these models without consent. These cases are still ongoing.
Once the models were made available to the public free of charge, they were trained using data from ordinary people and gained access to information from a large portion of the global population. Right now, I have a smart device on my wrist. These devices most likely collect a wide range of information about my body every minute or every few minutes. As a result, these large companies, often described as ‘techno-feudal’ corporations, now possess extensive data about much of humanity.
There was a recent report about a programmer who, while trying to control his robot vacuum cleaner in a different way, realized that he was simultaneously controlling 7,000 devices worldwide. Devices with cameras moving around inside our homes clearly show how vulnerable our data has become. As these technologies develop, the notion of a private space is gradually disappearing.”
AI development sidelines human labor in favor of corporations
Ilbaş warned that the collection of data through artificial intelligence could lead to large corporations establishing dominance over people and drew attention to the following points: “As ordinary people, there are likely many areas where artificial intelligence is being used in ways and for purposes that we do not fully understand. There was a case where OpenAI and Anthropic blamed each other over the use of AI in a school bombing in which children were killed. There were also claims that Donald Trump had requested far broader usage rights from Anthropic and that the United States government sought expanded access, which Anthropic said it refused.
The following day, the United States Department of Defense signed an agreement with OpenAI. Opponents of Trump began shifting to Anthropic’s application Claude, which rose to the top of the App Store rankings within a day. However, it is also said that Anthropic has provided services in certain conflicts. In particular, Israel is reported to be using artificial intelligence very actively.
Beyond that, there are now factories in China operated entirely by robots and artificial intelligence without human involvement. AI is also widely used in livestock farming and agriculture worldwide. There are systems managing herds of five thousand cattle without any human shepherd, and thousands of hectares of land are cultivated without human labor.
What does this lead to? It means that large corporations are pushing human labor out of production. Just last week, Oracle, one of the largest companies in the United States, laid off 30,000 employees, citing that artificial intelligence tools could perform their jobs.
This development, much like the Industrial Revolution, serves capital, but the pace of change is far greater this time. The volume of knowledge produced through artificial intelligence in just the past two to three years is nearly greater than that accumulated throughout human history. As a result, middle- and lower-income groups are becoming far more vulnerable in the face of capital owners.”
Unemployed people spend more time on screens
Cihad Ilbaş said that artificial intelligence tools have turned into a widespread trend and are used most frequently by poorer communities and workers. He said: “Middle- and lower-income groups are already the ones who consume many things that are harmful to human health the most. The wealthy sell cigarettes, but it is generally the poor who smoke them. These tools are heavily promoted and have been turned into a trend. As they spread through smartphones, their use increases at the grassroots level. This is because unemployment rises at lower income levels, and unemployed people spend more time in front of screens. In Turkey and in poorer countries further east, this time can reach between 8 and 12 hours a day.
People are, in a sense, becoming dependent on this and are being turned into data farms for artificial intelligence. Through the algorithms of social media platforms, AI can understand individuals down to the deepest levels of their minds. These companies know very well which triggers will release dopamine and are further commodifying us. We remain highly vulnerable in this regard and approach the issue individually. This vulnerability is much greater in developing countries and in disadvantaged languages.”
AI has been developed in dominant languages
Cihad Ilbaş said that journalists must also use artificial intelligence correctly and pointed to positive examples around the world: “There are some positive examples globally. Basque, which is considered one of the disadvantaged languages, is treated as a low-resource language for AI tools and therefore does not benefit sufficiently from these developments. This is because language models are generally built for dominant languages. In the Basque region, there is a technology and language center called ‘HiTZ.’ This center works on developing advanced AI models for disadvantaged languages using limited data so that they can compete with the unfair advantages of dominant languages.
In the United Kingdom, a member of parliament has complained that speeches in parliament are being generated by artificial intelligence, saying that ‘we should not hand over our communication to an electronic device.’ In India, there are cooperatives that measure meteorological developments to increase productivity and share this information with farmers. In Africa, AI is used for the efficient use of water. Such applications are particularly important for oppressed societies.”
AI develops in languages with market value
Cihad Ilbaş said that the term “low-resource language” is used for languages with few speakers and writers or for languages like Kurdish that lack official status and stressed that artificial intelligence primarily develops in widely used languages because it is shaped by dominant economic systems. Ilbaş said: “A low-resource language is either one with a limited number of speakers and writers, or one like Kurdish, which may have a large population but lacks official status. It has limited presence in television, radio, newspapers, and published books. AI models are developed by large capital-driven companies, primarily in English. They then expand into languages that have an economy, that have a market.
Four to five centuries ago, Ahmedê Xanî identified that Kurdish had no ‘market.’ He saw this as the reason why people did not write in Kurdish. A low-resource language essentially means a language without a market, without economic value. We say that there are 20 to 30 million Kurds living in Turkey, but which company produces advertisements or brochures in Kurdish?
If a language is not spoken in public spaces such as markets and streets, it becomes confined to homes and loses its economic function. Large corporations will not change this because capitalism favors uniformity. For a large company, producing content in a second language represents an additional cost. This is why nation-states and capitalism have developed hand in hand throughout the twentieth century. The existence of second or third languages within a country is not something capital owners prefer.”
Kurdolingo was created to expand and develop Kurdish
Cihad Ilbaş said that Kurdolingo was created to fill a gap and was inspired by platforms such as Duolingo, aiming to do the same for Kurdish. Ilbaş said:
“I have been teaching Kurdish and working as a translator since 2013. I developed my Kurdish at the Istanbul Kurdish Institute. After the hunger strikes in 2012, when the right to defense in one’s mother tongue was recognized, I also began working as a translator.
Platforms like Duolingo or Cambly have significantly increased the opportunities to learn English. In a similar way, I provide online Kurdish lessons. When you teach online, you need digital materials because I have students from 33 different countries, including China, New Zealand, and the United States. It is not possible to send physical books to them.
Over the past three to four years, a digital archive has been created to meet this need. With storybooks, audiobooks, and exercise materials, I decided to turn this into a platform. I also developed professional courses for journalists, politicians, and healthcare workers. Once I added tools such as an AI-supported Kurdish dictionary and flashcard applications, Kurdolingo emerged.”
Cihad Ilbaş emphasized that Kurdolingo will continue to expand the scope of Kurdish through artificial intelligence and said: “When learning a language, after the lessons are over, there is a need to use it through films, books, and music. Students usually have limited opportunities to communicate with Kurdish speakers. If someone wants to learn a language, they must be exposed to it in all areas. Kurdolingo will continue to produce such content. We are also exploring what more can be done with artificial intelligence, such as mobile games and quizzes. Since Kurdish is a low-resource language, we can replicate some of the advanced algorithms used by large companies.
For example, the name Kurdolingo was inspired by Duolingo to attract attention, and we follow their gamification strategy. Making learning enjoyable is especially important for young people. However, this approach can sometimes shift away from teaching a language and instead serve to increase usage and profit. That is not our goal. We want Kurdish to be not only a language that is learned, but one that is actively used and appealing.
Knowing a language is not enough to preserve it; it must also be used. In languages such as Basque, Galician, and Catalan, the rate of knowing the language is increasing, but daily usage is declining because they face unequal competition with dominant languages. For Kurdish, there is neither official status nor an economic base in Turkey. A language needs a place in economic life.
People learn a language either because they are required to in school or to find employment. Kurdish should be the same. We face both political and economic struggles ahead. We must be able to turn artificial intelligence to our advantage and create a Kurdish-language market. Kurdolingo’s efforts will move in that direction.”
Leave a Reply