Sberbank believes that technology should be used to preserve and multiply the financial and cultural wealth of Russian people. According to UNESCO, 98 indigenous languages in Russia will disappear in the next 50 years. Some of them have less than 10 speakers. Most of them will leave no written literature behind. Sberbank collected hundreds of hours of linguistic data to create the first AI that learns the disappearing languages and can teach them back to people.

We created an AI that has learned the disappearing languages of Russia and can teach them back to people.

Sberbank believes that technology should be used to preserve and multiply financial and cultural wealth of Russian people. Russia is home to 160 nationalities. Many nationalities have unique indigenous cultures. But urbanization and technological progress have put these cultures at risk. Young people don't speak the languages of their ancestors anymore and don't know the world these languages describe. Sberbank used its vast technological resources to preserve the disappearing languages of Russia and their unique worlds for future generations.

This project took over two years in the making. We went to remote villages of Russia and recorded hundreds of hours of natives talking. A specially built AI analyzed this linguistic material to reveal the general patterns and logic of the language. Learning algorithms expanded the lexicon based on statistical translation approach. Once the correspondence system between Russian and the endangered language was created, the language was fully preserved within the AI and could be learned by anyone who speaks Russian in the future. That’s how Immortals appeared.

On the 4th of November 2019, National Unity Day, Russia met the Immortals. A 1,5 min film has introduced the project during the news program on Russia's main channel. Russians could interact with the Immortals on a microsite and discover the unique worlds of Nganasans, Ingrians, and Ulchi.

Paid media has reached 35 million people. Social media, press, TV shows and news added 70 million people. The country kept talking about the disappearing languages for 9 weeks. Most Russians hadn’t known these languages existed.

The core of the AI can be now used to save all 98 endangered languages. Further funding was secured for several years to come. Rare specialized linguists have reached out to help teach the Immortals other disappearing languages. There’re hundreds of disappearing languages around the world. This AI can be used to preserve all of them.