4. Statement by the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning: The Welsh-language Technology Action Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:58 pm on 23 October 2018.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 3:58, 23 October 2018

Thank you very much. I warmly welcome the vision behind the statement of putting Welsh and English on an equal footing so they can work simultaneously on the same platforms, and the ambitions you have of making sure that devices like Siri and Alexa can chat to us in both languages seamlessly. It's clearly the right one. An emphasis on better machine translation and Welsh language bots is also absolutely the right focus.

I think the opposition parties are right to challenge us on the absence of targets and timelines. I also think we need to think very clearly what it is we're trying to achieve and what is the role of the Welsh Government in this. Is it to have a favoured supplier, like Microsoft, who is regarded as ahead of the pack in the quality of Welsh language translation, or is it to influence, as has been discussed, the broader marketplace? Clearly, depending on which of those paths we want, the route we take will be slightly different. I think, when we look at the deliverables section of the action plan, a number of the deliverables mention releasing software under an appropriate licence, which would suggest that we are giving an advantage to Microsoft to then allow others to use its intellectual property. I think it would be better if we insisted on an open platform, and open software, maintaining the public good, rather than simply favouring a particular vendor from the outset where we create a set of dependencies and restrict innovation in the broader marketplace. This is often a fine line to walk, especially in an area like Wales where there is little market activity and it's having to be stimulated by the Government. But I just invite the Minister to give that some thought with her experts, because I think it's important that we get this right at the beginning so we can influence the ecosystem as we go on.

Similarly, it's important that this is done in parallel with the Welsh Government's broader work on digital, particularly in the public sector. I must say the section in the introduction on the public sector is sparse. I think there is an opportunity to increase Welsh provision through the use of technology and I think we need to give a bit more thought to that.

My final point is a comment the Minister made in response to Suzy Davies about reassuring her that this was not going to replace teachers in our classrooms. I just urge us all to have an open mind about the possibilities here. Bill Gates has talked in the past about the fact that we overestimate the amount of change we're likely to see in the next two years and underestimate the amount of change we're going to see in the next 10 years. And when you think, 10 years ago smartphones barely existed, Skype was in its infancy, and just, for example, how much things have changed since then, certainly machine language translation didn't really exist and how now that's become part of our everyday life. I think, when you look at the fact that Google are developing earpieces where you can have simultaneous translation in any language, the possibility is mind-blowing. And this is not to say we're going to displace teachers, but the ability to enhance our use of language and the way we learn it to assist teachers, to get more people understanding and using language and breaking down communication barriers, that's huge. Let's not start at the beginning with a defensive mindset about, 'Don't worry, we're not going to get rid of jobs in this sector', or threaten professional interests in another. We need to be open about what this can deliver to us as a society, and how it can give the language extra life. Diolch.