A language initiative supporting AI development in Africa has received more than 800 applications from 64 countries, with 85 per cent coming from African countries. The 26 selected projects cover more than 50 African languages across 47 countries, including efforts to develop Tanzanian Sign Language resources and provide vaccination information in languages spoken in Guinea. Microsoft Research Africa’s Paza project is also working on speech recognition for 39 African languages, including Swahili and five Kenyan languages.