Google Translate learns Quechua, Aymara and Guarani

On 11 May 2022 Google Translate added Quechua, Aymara and Guarani by zero-shot machine translation. Google counts about 10 million Quechua speakers. An activist says that it helps the language live.

  • 1 for a person

    Speakers can translate text to and from their languages in a free tool, a convenience, and the sources report no measured use or outcome.

  • Not rated society

    An activist and a scholar expect the service to support the languages' survival, and no source measures an effect on any language.

Depth runs from 1, a small gain, to 5, a life saved.

Status
Realized benefit.
Evidence

foundstudiedreportedclaimed

An independent news report supports the benefit.

Size

0.56 =1+5+4+420×3+510

Scale1The deepest rating above
Reach5Google counts about 10 million Quechua, two million Aymara and seven million Guarani speakers whose languages the service now covers. Source
Duration4The three languages have stayed on the service since May 2022, and Google's Cloud Translation list still carried them on 27 October 2026. Source
Distribution4Google's scientist told reporters that it chose languages with very large, underserved populations, and the three are Indigenous languages of the Americas. Source
Probability3Realized.
Frequency5Google Translate is an online service that speakers can use at any time, so the benefit is continuous. Source
The system’s part
Not isolated. Google says that the languages were added with zero-shot machine translation and warns that quality lags its main languages. No source measures use, accuracy in practice or any outcome for speakers, so what the system contributed beyond availability is undocumented.
Learns from data

Shown. Google says that the languages were the first added with zero-shot machine translation, in which a machine learning model sees only monolingual text.

“These are the first languages we've added using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, where a machine learning model only sees monolingual text - meaning, it learns to translate into another language without ever seeing an example.” Source

Later
Persisted, 27 October 2026. Google's Cloud Translation language list, updated 27 October 2026, still includes Aymara, Guarani and Quechua.

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Type of benefit
Increased Inclusion
System
Google Translate (zero-shot machine translation for Quechua, Aymara and Guarani)
Made by
Google
Used by
Google (public users of Google Translate)
Where
Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Brazil (speakers of the three languages)
Date
Kind
Program
Broad benefit
Culture, Accessibility
Collections
Cross-border benefits

Sources

  1. News report, by authors with no tie to the system.

    Briceño F, O'Brien M / Associated Press (2022). Google diversifies its translation service, adds 24 languages. The Christian Science Monitor, 13 May 2022.

    "We looked at languages with very large, underserved populations," Google research scientist Isaac Caswell told reporters.

  2. Press release, by the makers.

    Caswell I (2022). Google Translate learns 24 new languages. The Keyword (Google blog), 11 May 2022.

    As part of this update, Indigenous languages of the Americas (Quechua, Guarani and Aymara) and an English dialect (Sierra Leonean Krio) have also been added to Translate for the first time.

  3. Other, by the makers.

    Google Cloud (2026). Language support, Cloud Translation documentation. Page last updated 27 October 2026, checked 2 November 2026.

    Last updated 2026-10-27 UTC.

Details

AI system

Workflow

Google trained a single large model on about 100 data-rich languages and applied it to languages for which it found enough monolingual online text. Native speakers, professors and linguists evaluated the output before launch, and Google added only languages that met a proficiency threshold.

Follow-up

Conditions for replication

Google says that other languages lacked the monolingual online text that a usable model needs. Google says that quality in the new languages still lags its main languages, so users must accept errors in text-only translation.

The entry

Sector

Language technology / Indigenous languages.

Purpose

Google built the additions so that speakers of languages absent from most technology can translate text to and from them in Google Translate.

Cite this benefit

Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Google Translate learns Quechua, Aymara and Guarani (AIBD-1224). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-1224.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII)

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