Language Technology Programme for Iceland - 2024-2026
The Icelandic government’s previous Language Technology Programme, completed in 2023, provided an ambitious vision for the preservation of the Icelandic language and made Iceland and Icelandic better equipped than most other small linguistic areas to cope with rapid technological changes in artificial intelligence (AI) and language technology (LT).
The charter of Iceland’s current government states that efforts to strengthen the position of Icelandic in the digital world will continue, with a special focus on language technology.
To that end, in May 2023, the Minister of Culture and Business affairs appointed a steering group to evaluate and analyse the best methods for long-term integration of language technology at the administrative level, as well as to draft the next official Language Technology Programme.
The steering group initially worked with a working group on language technology appointed by the Minister of Culture and Business Affairs alongside the steering group. The working group was made up of 12 representatives of language technology companies, universities, institutions, and organisations of those who can benefit from language technology in their daily activities, as well as members of the steering group.
The group held four meetings during its term of appointment where it succeeded in highlighting the important views of stakeholders and their priorities for the next Language Technology Programme. In addition, the project period of the previous Language Technology Programme was dissected with a view to learning from experience and identifying opportunities for improvement when making the next steps for Icelandic language technology. This proved to be highly useful preparation for developing the proposals presented herein.
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