The voices of Gaelic speakers across Skye and the Western Isles will help shape the future of artificial intelligence after a pioneering project secured £600,000 to bring the language into the digital age.
The Scottish Government has awarded the funding to AITEAL, a new initiative that will record up to 500 hours of naturally spoken Gaelic over the next 18 months, helping develop technology that understands the language as people actually speak it.
The name AITEAL means “ray of light”, reflecting the project’s ambition to remove barriers that have left Gaelic speakers without many of the digital services available in English and other widely spoken languages.
From automatic subtitles and speech recognition to virtual assistants and educational resources, the possibilities extend into everyday life.
One of the biggest obstacles facing Gaelic language technology is the limited availability of high quality recordings that reflect the different accents, dialects and expressions found in communities.
Without that information, developers struggle to create reliable systems capable of recognising spoken Gaelic or responding accurately to people using the language.
AITEAL aims to address that problem by working directly with Gaelic speakers in their own communities, ensuring the technology is built around authentic speech rather than artificial examples.
The project will initially create four jobs, including three fieldworker positions based in rural and island communities and a dedicated project manager.
It has been developed by Gaelic arts organisation Fèisean nan Gàidheal, working alongside Community Enterprise and technology specialist Northcode Digital.
Funding has been awarded through the Scottish Government’s CivTech programme, which supports innovative technology projects designed to address challenges in public services.
Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic Màiri McAllan said:
“The lack of data on Scottish Gaelic presents a significant barrier in developing technologies for Gaelic speakers.
“AITEAL aims to overcome this, ensuring Gaelic language and culture thrive.
“This exciting project will enrich communities, safeguard cultural heritage and unlock economic opportunities, providing lasting benefits for Gaelic speakers.
“AITEAL has the potential to be of international significance as it can provide a model which other languages can follow to overcome digital inequality.”
The recordings could eventually support technology capable of transcribing conversations, translating speech and making public services more accessible to Gaelic speakers.
There is also potential to develop Gaelic AI chatbots, helping people interact with digital systems in their own language.
For communities where Gaelic remains part of daily life, the project represents an opportunity to ensure modern technology reflects their linguistic heritage rather than leaving it behind.
Calum Alex Macmillan, Chief Executive of Fèisean nan Gàidheal and Director of AITEAL Limited, said:
“We look forward to working directly with Gaelic speakers in their communities, recording the language as it is naturally spoken and capturing the richness of its dialects and idioms in everyday use.
“AITEAL presents exciting opportunities to make Gaelic more accessible and usable across all aspects of community life, from education and healthcare to public services, workplaces and everyday interactions in our communities.
“The company’s ambition extends beyond the initial 18-month development and data collection phase. Established to provide long-term stewardship of both the project’s linguistic resources and supporting technology, AITEAL will oversee the management, governance and future development of the data.
“It also creates potential opportunities for future specialist roles as the initiative grows and evolves.”
The ambition extends beyond the initial recording programme, with AITEAL intending to manage and develop the language resources over the longer term.
By capturing the Gaelic spoken in homes and communities today, the project could help ensure those voices remain part of the technologies people use tomorrow.
