The tech giant’s platform now translates Inuktut in syllabic and Latin alphabets. The language is spoken by about 40,000 Inuit across Canada, as well as in Greenland and Alaska. (Nunatsiaq News)

Talking point: Google was able to include Inuktut—a term that encompasses a range of dialects, including Inuktitut—because of the availability of text data to create the model, thanks to a community that’s “increasingly online,” senior Google software engineer Isaac Caswell told the Canadian Press. The company also had guidance from Inuktut speakers and community leaders, including the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), Canada’s national Inuit organization. Without ITK, Google wouldn’t have been able to include the syllabic alphabet. ITK president Natan Obed told CP the service is “reconciliation in action.” Elsewhere in the world, Big Tech has faced resistance from Indigenous communities over the rights to their language data. It’s part of a broader Indigenous data sovereignty movement that’s growing globally, including in Canada.