University of Iceland Receives LINGUA Grant from Microsoft for Icelandic AI safety benchmarks
The University of Iceland has been selected as an awardee of Microsoft鈥檚 LINGUA initiative, a program dedicated to supporting underrepresented languages in the digital age. The grant will fund the creation of open datasets designed to evaluate and ensure the safety of AI models in Icelandic.
We are proud to announce that the University of Iceland鈥檚 project, Icelandic AI Safety Benchmarks, led by Associate Professor Hafsteinn Einarsson, has been awarded a grant through the LINGUA Open Call by the Microsoft AI for Good Lab. LINGUA is an initiative designed to advance digital inclusion for low-resource languages, ensuring they are not left behind as AI technology accelerates. Our project focuses on creating open benchmarks and evaluation datasets to test the safety of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Icelandic, a critical step in ensuring that AI technology remains reliable and safe for Icelandic speakers.
We are deeply grateful to Microsoft for this support and their commitment to linguistic diversity. This grant acts as vital recognition of the need to protect and empower the Icelandic language in the digital sphere. By developing these safety benchmarks, we are contributing to Iceland鈥檚 digital sovereignty and ensuring that our language and culture are fully represented鈥攁nd safely implemented鈥攊n the next generation of AI models.
See Microsoft's announcement here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/lingua-expanding-europes-voices-in-ai/