Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Using technology to turn micro-volunteering into a macro impact (IDE109)

Summary

The speaker discusses the critical issue of language barriers faced by refugees, which affects their access to essential services and resources.
44% of refugees, which equates to approximately 15 million people, cannot understand the information provided to them, leading to discrimination, errors, and denial of services.
Traditional solutions like remote interpreters, in-person interpreters, AI machine translations, and using family members as interpreters have significant limitations.
Terjimli, a tech nonprofit, aims to eliminate language barriers for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers by crowdsourcing volunteer translators to provide free on-demand interpretation and translation services.
The app has over 40,000 volunteer translators and has facilitated over a hundred thousand connections for translation or interpretation.
Terjimli plans to use AI to improve and scale their services, with projects like Terjimli Reach Plus for app localization and voice activation, Terjimli First Pass for initial machine translations, and the hub for refining AI language models.
The speaker encourages multilingual individuals to volunteer as translators and for attendees to connect NGOs to Terjimli.

Language access is a significant and often overlooked barrier for refugees, which can have severe consequences on their ability to receive aid and integrate into new communities.
The use of technology, specifically AI and machine learning, can play a crucial role in addressing the language barrier issue, but current AI translations are not reliable enough for high-stakes situations, especially for low-resource languages.
Terjimli's approach to leveraging both human volunteers and AI technology represents a hybrid model that can provide immediate assistance while also contributing to the long-term improvement of AI translation capabilities.
The concept of micro-volunteering facilitated by technology can have a substantial impact on global issues by allowing individuals to contribute in flexible and meaningful ways.
The speaker's call to action emphasizes the importance of community involvement and the potential for technology to empower individuals to make a difference in the lives of refugees and immigrants.