Interview conducted by UNESCO Article written by UNITAR

Courtesy of Yerdaulet Rakhmatulla

25 April 2023, Hiroshima, Japan - Yerdaulet Rakhmatulla, a Kazakhstani student, recently completed the challenging task of translating the comprehensive course “Defending Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”. The course was created by UNITAR and UNESCO, with translation coordination by SALTO Participation & Information Resource Centre (SALTO PI). In 2022, UNITAR, UNESCO, and SALTO PI held a call for youth translators to bring the course into other languages. Most of the youth translators involved in the project worked in teams, but Yerdaulet took on all roles – translator, first reviewer, and second reviewer – demonstrating his exceptional skills and dedication.

The translation was not new to Yerdaulet, but he was especially excited to work on this course because of his interest in human rights and AI. His passion for human rights began in high school when he volunteered to organize events to educate local youth on human rights.

A course on AI translated with AI

Defending Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” is a course about AI, but – in an interesting twist – AI also played a role in the translation process. AI first translated the original English, and that output was then used by the human translators making the final translation. In this way, AI helped prepare materials about itself and human rights in Kazakh.

Since we already had a baseline translation made from AI, it was easier to work with and translate. The quality of the translation of the AI was high. I was surprised. The dataset and results will help to develop terminology and general information about AI in the Kazakh language.

Teach and inspire young people about digital rights

Yerdaulet believes the younger generations do not see a difference between the real and digital worlds. He thinks that the “Defending Human Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” course is essential for Kazakh youth because they need to be taught about digital rights and how they interconnect with universal human rights in the real world.

Yerdaulet hopes that his work will inspire other young Kazakhs to take an interest and get involved in digital and human rights.

I hope this is only the beginning of making information on digital rights and human rights as accessible as it should be. This will open the gate to future generations to build informational products. Our community will grow, and we’ll contribute all together. - Yerdaulet Rakhmatulla

ABOUT UNITAR

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is a dedicated training arm of the United Nations. In 2021, UNITAR trained 370,139 learners around the world to support their actions for a better future. In addition to our headquarters in Geneva, we have offices in Hiroshima, New York, Bonn and various networks around the world.

One of the eight divisions of UNITAR, the Division for Prosperity, based in the Hiroshima Office and Geneva Headquarters, seeks to shape an inclusive, sustainable and prosperous world. World-class learning and knowledge-sharing services on entrepreneurship, leadership, finance and trade, digital technologies, and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are offered. We empower individuals from developing countries – especially women and young people – to address inequalities. Our alumni are making a difference in least-developed countries, countries emerging from conflict, and small-island developing states.

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