A National Revolution: AI and the Future of Kurdish Language
On June 19, 2025, we witnessed a historic moment in the intersection of technology and cultural preservation. The University of Kurdistan Hewlêr (UKH), through its Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Centre (AIIC), partnered with the Kurdish Academy to announce a groundbreaking initiative that we proudly describe as a “national revolution” - the integration of the Kurdish language into AI technology.
The Vision: Preserving Culture Through Technology
This project represents more than just technological advancement; it embodies our commitment to ensuring that the Kurdish language thrives in the digital age. As we advance into an increasingly AI-driven world, it becomes crucial that our language and culture are not left behind but are instead empowered by these emerging technologies.
Comprehensive AI Platform for Kurdish Language
Our team of students, professors, and researchers at UKH’s AIIC has developed a comprehensive platform that provides six advanced services for all Kurdish dialects. The platform represents a significant technological achievement in language processing and cultural preservation. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities form the foundation of our text processing services, enabling accurate digitization of Kurdish texts across various fonts and formats. As explained by team member Hevi Khosrawi, who holds a master’s degree in computer science: “We have very good OCR in other languages, so I thought we could develop our models in the same way.” Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology provides advanced voice synthesis capabilities that convert Kurdish text into natural-sounding speech across different dialects, supporting accessibility and language learning initiatives. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) offers sophisticated speech-to-text conversion that understands and transcribes spoken Kurdish, facilitating voice-controlled applications and searchable audio archives. The Kurdish Language Corpus represents a comprehensive collection of texts that serves as the foundation for training our AI models, ensuring understanding of linguistic nuances and cultural context. Our Digital Dictionary provides an extensive, AI-powered reference tool that goes beyond simple translations to offer contextual understanding, etymology, and usage examples. Advanced Language Services encompass spell checking, grammar correction, translation, summarization, and comprehensive text analysis tools that support research and linguistic studies.
Technical Innovation and Research Excellence
Our platform represents a significant breakthrough in natural language processing for low-resource languages through comprehensive research and innovative technical approaches. We utilize state-of-the-art neural networks specifically adapted for Kurdish language characteristics, ensuring our models understand the morphological complexity and syntactic patterns unique to Kurdish. Transfer learning techniques leverage knowledge from high-resource languages to improve processing efficiency and accuracy across Sorani, Kurmanji, and other Kurdish dialects. Data collection involves gathering texts from literature, news, academic papers, and digital content to create robust training datasets with rigorous validation procedures ensuring accuracy and linguistic authenticity. As Aram Mahmoud, the project supervisor, explained to Rudaw: “We generally use artificial intelligence. In the first phase, we try to digitize the data we have, whether voice data or text, and put it in computer format. After that, we use a set of artificial intelligence models to perform several important tasks, such as spell checking.” Our methodology encompasses data digitization, AI model training, multi-service integration, and continuous improvement based on user feedback and additional data.
Strategic Partnership with Kurdish Academy
This project is being carried out in partnership with the Kurdish Academy, ensuring linguistic accuracy and cultural authenticity. As Pakhshan Fahmi, a linguist at the Kurdish Academy, noted: “We tried to use texts that were previously doctoral and master’s theses, because they have the fewest grammatical and spelling errors.”
The Symposium: “AI and the Future of the Kurdish Language”
The announcement was made during a prestigious symposium held at the Kurdish Academy in Erbil, attended by distinguished guests including Mr. Omed Khoshnaw, Governor of Erbil, UKH senior management, leading figures from the Kurdish Academy, and academics and technology experts from across the region. Dr. Zana Ibrahim highlighted the critical importance of this initiative: “We need to find ways to secure the future of the Kurdish language amid the fast pace of technological advancements.” Mr. Hama Saed Hasan, President of the Kurdish Academy, reaffirmed their institutional commitment: “The Kurdish Academy considers it a duty to make its expertise and resources available in maintaining the Kurdish language at its best in the digital age.” Dr. Tarik A. Rashid, Director of UKH’s AIIC, delivered a comprehensive presentation demonstrating how this collaboration will provide the public with innovative linguistic tools that bridge traditional scholarship with cutting-edge technology.
Media Coverage and Recognition
The project has garnered significant attention, with Rudaw TV providing comprehensive coverage of this historic initiative. As Tariq Ahmed, director of UKH’s AIIC, explained to Rudaw: “Instead of searching for each of these on several different sites, this platform gives you all of them together. You may not only need translation, video or text.” The coverage has helped raise awareness about the importance of preserving and advancing the Kurdish language through technology.
Impact and Significance
This initiative represents important milestones in cultural preservation, technological innovation, and social impact. The project ensures Kurdish language survival and growth in the digital era through comprehensive heritage preservation efforts, accessibility improvements that make tools available to speakers worldwide, and educational support that enhances language learning capabilities. The technological innovation positions Kurdistan as a leader in language technology development, showcasing Kurdish academic institutions’ capabilities internationally and establishing UKH’s AIIC as a center of excellence in natural language processing. Social impact encompasses language revitalization efforts that encourage Kurdish use in digital contexts, youth engagement initiatives connecting younger generations with their linguistic heritage, and global connectivity enabling Kurdish speakers to participate fully in the digital world while maintaining their cultural identity.
Looking Forward: The Future of Kurdish Language Technology
This platform represents just the beginning of our comprehensive vision to establish Kurdish language technology as a leading example of minority language preservation through artificial intelligence. The initial platform launch focuses on public release accompanied by systematic user feedback collection and system refinement processes, with community engagement campaigns ensuring widespread awareness across Kurdish-speaking populations globally. Advanced features development will introduce enhanced AI models with improved accuracy, additional dialect support for regional variations, and integration with popular digital platforms for seamless user experience. Ecosystem development represents our long-term vision through developer APIs enabling third-party applications, educational partnerships integrating Kurdish language technology into formal learning environments, and international collaboration with other minority language projects fostering knowledge sharing and technological advancement.
Conclusion: A Historic Achievement
The launch of this Kurdish AI platform represents a historic achievement in the intersection of technology and cultural preservation, demonstrating the high caliber of research and development at UKH’s AIIC. Our team’s dedication to combining cutting-edge AI technology with deep linguistic expertise has resulted in a platform that serves both technological advancement and cultural preservation. The collaboration with the Kurdish Academy ensures that our AI models are trained on high-quality, linguistically accurate data, making our platform both technologically sophisticated and culturally authentic.
This initiative serves as a model for how minority languages can leverage AI technology for preservation and revitalization, inspiring similar efforts for other languages facing digital marginalization. As we move forward, this project will continue to evolve, incorporating new technologies and expanding its capabilities. The partnership between UKH’s AIIC and the Kurdish Academy has created something truly revolutionary - a comprehensive AI platform that serves the Kurdish language and, by extension, Kurdish culture and identity.
This is indeed a national revolution - one that positions the Kurdish language at the forefront of AI technology and ensures its place in the digital future. The project has received extensive media coverage, including comprehensive reporting by Rudaw English and official documentation through the UKH Official Announcement. The historic symposium took place on June 19, 2025, at the Kurdish Academy in Erbil, organized jointly by UKH’s AIIC and the Kurdish Academy, with Rudaw TV serving as the media partner for this groundbreaking event that marks a new chapter in the digital preservation and advancement of the Kurdish language.