AI often struggles with low-resource languages, leaving millions excluded from its benefits. Meta AI launched the No Language Left Behind (NLLB-200) project to change this.
What is NLLB-200?
In 2022, Meta introduced NLLB-200, a translation model covering 200 languages—including many low-resource ones (Meta AI, 2022). Unlike typical models, it was designed specifically to handle languages with little digital text available.
How It Reduces Bias
By balancing performance across both high- and low-resource languages, NLLB helps reduce the inequality gap in AI translation. Meta also worked with native speakers and local evaluators to assess translation quality.
Why It Matters
NLLB makes digital spaces more inclusive by giving voice to languages often ignored in AI research. It sets a precedent for AI development that values linguistic diversity instead of English dominance.
Projects like NLLB highlight how bias can be reduced by investing in underrepresented languages, showing the potential for more equitable AI.
Curious about the energy and cost behind each article? Here’s a quick look at the AI resources used to generate this post.
🔍 Token Usage
Prompt + Completion: 3,050 tokens
Estimated Cost: $0.0061
Carbon Footprint: ~14g CO₂e (equivalent to charging a smartphone for 2.8 hours)
Post-editing: Reviewed and refined using Grammarly for clarity and accuracy
Tokens are pieces of text AI reads or writes. More tokens = more compute power = higher cost and environmental impact.