With his signature geeky glasses and TED-Talk-style headset, Sundar Pichai looked straight out of a Silicon Valley incubator.
Shadow Campaign of La Francophonie
Mr. Nkalwo Ngoula’s organization, La Francophonie – which brings together 93 states and governments around the use of French, representing more than 320 million people worldwide – has made this linguistic gap a centerpiece of its digital strategy.
The group’s efforts culminated in last year’s UN Global Digital Compact, a framework for AI governance adopted by the Member States. From 2023 onward, La Francophonie leveraged its diplomatic network – including the influential Francophone Ambassadors’ Group at the UN – to ensure linguistic diversity became a core principle in AI policymaking.
Along the way, unexpected allies emerged. Lusophone and Hispanic advocacy groups joined the fight, and even Washington sided with their cause. “The US defended language inclusion in AI development,” Mr. Nkalwo Ngoula noted.
Their push paid off. The final Global Digital Compact explicitly recognizes cultural and linguistic diversity – an issue that had initially been buried under broader discussions on accessibility. “Our goal was to bring it to the forefront,” he said.
The movement even reached Silicon Valley. At the UN Summit for the Future in September 2024, where the Compact was officially adopted, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, surprised many by emphasizing the need for A.I. to provide access to global knowledge in multiple languages.
“We’re working toward 1,000 of the world’s most spoken languages,” he pledged – a commitment he reaffirmed in Paris months later.
Limits of the Global Digital Compact
Despite these gains, challenges remain. Chief among them is visibility. “Francophone content is often buried by platform algorithms,” Mr Nkalwo Ngoula warns.
Streaming giants like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify prioritize popularity, meaning English-language content dominates search results.
“If linguistic diversity were truly considered, a French-speaking user should see French-language films at the top of their recommendations,” he argued.
The overwhelming dominance of English in AI training data is another hurdle sidestepped by the Compact, which also omits any reference to UNESCO’s Convention on Cultural Diversity – an oversight that, according to Mr. Nkalwo Ngoula, should be rectified.
“Linguistic diversity must be the backbone of digital advocacy for La Francophonie,” Nkalwo Ngoula insisted.
Given the pace of AI development, those changes can’t come a moment too soon.