Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m very pleased to have the opportunity to reply to this debate. I’m very pleased that the Member for North Wales has chosen this particular issue for his short debate. I do think that when we discuss the promotion of the Welsh language there isn’t enough discussion of this particular issue, and I am pleased that you’ve chosen to highlight it this afternoon. I look forward to officials in the Senedd translating what Siri had to say earlier on. I’ll make a point of looking at the Record of Proceedings in the morning.

Llyr and I have discussed these issues in the Chamber on a number of occasions and I know that Llyr is very fond of words like ‘challenge’ and ‘risk’. I prefer the second word that he used, which was ‘opportunity’, because I do think we have to look at the changes that you have outlined and described very well this afternoon as an opportunity for the Welsh language. Too often when we discuss the language, we are thinking of it in negative terms and using words and statements that are negative. I want to look at the positives and I want to be extremely positive about how we can ensure that the Welsh language is part of this new world, and also works as a means of innovating for the future too. I think that each and every one of us has an opportunity to contribute to that. But, clearly, I do recognise that the Government has a responsibility and a role in leading in this area too, and I very much hope that people will see that the Government here has been leading in terms of our thinking and in terms of our actions. I think that both of those things are important.

Deputy Presiding Officer, one of the reasons that we had agreed on the aim and objective of creating a million Welsh speakers was because of a decision that things had to change. We could have continued to manage the situation and language policy as we have done over the past 20 years—managing the way that we develop policies on the Welsh language and bilingualism, standards and so on and so forth. But, I think that there is agreement across the Chamber that things have to change and that means that we have to work differently. If you look at the way in which we consider the Welsh language, technology and the digital world are a clear focus for the kinds of change that we have to see and the kind of change that each and every one of us has to lead on.

I know the kind of world that our children will be living in. It’ll be very different to the world in which I grew up—not just in Tredegar, but everywhere else. When I started work, there were typewriters in the office and I still recall persuading colleagues to use electronic typewriters. When the first computers came to the office, there was a particular office space allocated to it, with opportunities for us to visit that computer on a daily basis. When I explain this to my children, they look at me in the way that I looked at my grandfather many years ago. So, the world is changing and there will be continuous change. I am particularly pleased that we recognise this and that we can make an effort now to promote the Welsh language in this new world.

I know that there is so much content, apps and software and so on available online and it’s far too easy on occasion for the Welsh language to be invisible in competing for attention with other languages, particularly the English language, and we have to recognise that. When I see my children doing their homework, they are looking online and the internet is available mainly in the English language, and we need to ensure a presence for the Welsh language. The technological market is a global market. In making business cases, major companies favour those languages with many, many speakers in prioritising and choosing which languages they support. We all know that. This means that it’s difficult for the Welsh language to compete for attention on occasion.

I don’t think there’s any disagreement: no-one would have been able to envisage Apple’s Siri, Amazon Echo or Google Home. I’m reading these names and I don’t quite understand always what they are. When I was elected to this place 10 years ago, if someone had told me that Siri would make an appearance in this Chamber today, I wouldn’t have understood what they were talking about. At the moment, Amazon Echo only understands two languages: English and German. Siri apparently can deal with some 20 languages, but Welsh isn’t one of them as of yet, as we’ve seen this afternoon. They’re available today and Welsh-speaking families are living with Amazon Echo in their homes. We must ensure, when we see these new toys, that they are able to work through the medium of Welsh and understand Welsh, because that’s how we can ensure that the Welsh language can remain the language of the home where families do use the language on a daily basis.

But we also know that 65 per cent of the people in world speak more than one language, many being multilingual. As a bilingual nation we have an opportunity and we must ensure that we can use this to our economic benefit in Wales, not just a cultural, linguistic benefit for Wales, but also an economic benefit. How can we ensure that tech industries for the future do benefit from our experience of being a bilingual nation here in Wales? We must ensure that we develop digital resources that are bilingual, available in English and in Welsh, and can do the same thing with other languages too. Once we have learnt how to use two languages—English and Welsh—then I’m sure that there are opportunities to roll that out for other languages and to show that there are different ways of making economic advances from this starting position.

I hope and suppose that we can develop an economic case for investing in large-scale language technology infrastructure, such as voice-to-text technology in Welsh and the ability to translate using machines. Whilst we type into forms today, we will be speaking to our devices more and more in the future. Voice-to-text technology and artificial intelligence—those words were a test for me—through the medium of Welsh are going to be crucially important for the future and this Government understands that challenge. But we also understand that the Welsh Government doesn’t have all of the answers, and the Government has to work with the organisations that you’ve mentioned, such as Canolfan Bedwyr in Bangor. I spoke at a conference in Bangor some months ago. I do appreciate the kind of skills that we have, not just in Bangor, but throughout Wales. When I had an opportunity in Edinburgh to speak to experts there, I learnt that they need that kind of expertise too. So, we can create alternative networks and ensure that the skills and the expertise that we have are things that we can roll out and use to work with others, not just here in Wales, but across the UK and across the world.

The experience of the National Assembly in using Microsoft Translator to translate the Record from one language to another does demonstrate the potential of machine translation for the future. How can we build on that good practice? There is an opportunity for world languages to collaborate—Welsh, Basque, Catalan, Irish and so on—in order to share resources. I will be visiting the Basque Country in a few weeks’ time to learn how they operate through the two languages that they use, and what we can learn from the Government of the Basque Country to ensure that we can collaborate in order to ensure that we add to the resources available to create some critical mass of skills and experience. We need to look at how technology brings communities together and take the Welsh language to new audiences and create communities of interest—from a Welsh-medium Microsoft to global learning communities. It’s an opportunity for us, an opportunity we’ve never had in the past.

Technology allows people to learn Welsh in different ways. For example, the centre for learning Welsh has been working very closely with Duolingo, which is an app that many language learners use. Over half a million people have registered to use the Welsh language Duolingo. I had an opportunity to experience that during the Urdd Eisteddfod a few weeks ago. But this isn’t the only online service. Say Something in Welsh also provides a similar service for learners and has done for many years. So, there is an opportunity to enhance the Welsh language and deepen the experience of using the Welsh language and securing a place for it in the future. I’m very grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer, to everyone who has been involved in this work with the funding that we have been able to provide in the past few years. Some developments have already taken place, but we can’t compete, necessarily, with some of the multinationals in terms of the scale of investment. So, we have to find different ways of investing for the future.

In developing new technologies, how do we prioritise? I think that we have a role as a Government in investing and I am determined to spend time, money and energy in the best way possible. That’s why I have created a group of specialists, the Welsh technology board—those with experience in the field—so that they can provide me with advice to move things forward. We had an excellent meeting at the national library in Aberystwyth last week and I was particularly pleased to see the kind of skills that we have in order to ensure that we have an opportunity to invest our intellect and our creativity in this project for the future. I know that many people are doing important work already and it’s important that we continue to invest. The challenge for me is to ensure that all of these efforts are brought together.

As Minister, I am more than happy to use the influence of Government to ensure that we bring pressure to bear on the large technology companies to make use of the Welsh language, and we will do that too. The digital sphere is an opportunity to think differently and to innovate. We must create a firm digital infrastructure and there’s a centrally important role in creating a stronghold for the Welsh language in the future. Deputy Presiding Officer, I am convinced that if we do collaborate, work with Government and Members in all parts of this Senedd, and work with national institutions and organisations, that we have an opportunity to secure the place of the Welsh language in the future, and a leading role for the Welsh language in the future too.