Microsoft unveiled two main initiatives in Paris designed to protect Europe’s linguistic and cultural heritage and bolster the continent’s place within the AI period. Constructing on its earlier European Digital Commitments, to broaden AI and cloud infrastructure, strengthen knowledge privateness, improve cyber‑resilience, and assist Europe’s broader digital competitiveness, these new steps will make European languages and cultural belongings extra accessible on-line and higher represented in massive language fashions (LLMs).

Europe boasts over 200 languages and a millennia‑previous cultural legacy that underpins each inventive expression and financial exercise by facilitating communication, innovation, and commerce. Nevertheless, as on-line content material turns into more and more dominated by English, a lot of it reflecting an American perspective, Europe’s commerce and tradition danger being underserved within the knowledge that trains at present’s massive language fashions. Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith, states, “AI that doesn’t perceive Europe’s languages, histories, and values can’t totally serve its individuals, its companies, or its future.”

For example this imbalance, Llama 3.1, an open‑supply mannequin, scores over 15 factors decrease in Greek and greater than 25 factors decrease in Latvian than in English, putting it high of the category in English, mid‑vary in Greek and close to the underside in Latvian, a sample seen throughout main LLM benchmarks.

To handle this, Microsoft will base experience at its innovation centres in Strasbourg, France, to develop and curate multilingual datasets on Microsoft Azure. These groups from its Open Innovation Centre (MOIC) and AI for Good Lab will work with cultural establishments, educational companions, and know-how corporations throughout Europe to broaden the supply of coaching knowledge in ten beneath‑represented European languages, amongst them Estonian, Alsatian, Slovak, Greek, and Maltese.

Microsoft has additionally issued a name for proposals to supply digital texts, transcripts, and different supplies appropriate for AI growth. Functions for grants, which can present recipients with Azure credit and engineering and technical assist, will likely be accessible on the AI for Good Lab web site starting on September 1st, 2025.

Secondly, Microsoft is extending its Tradition AI programme this autumn to create a excessive‑constancy digital reproduction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. In partnership with the French Ministry of Tradition and the heritage‑digitisation specialist Iconem, the challenge will seize the 862‑12 months‑previous Gothic landmark in high quality element. Earlier Tradition AI initiatives have digitally preserved websites reminiscent of Historical Olympia in Greece, Mount Saint‑Michel in France, St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the Normandy Allied seashore touchdown websites.

The tech big says that these initiatives construct on Microsoft’s greater than 40 years of localisation expertise. Right now, Home windows helps over 90 languages, together with all official European Union languages in addition to regional tongues reminiscent of Basque, Catalan, Galician, Luxembourgish and Valencian. Microsoft 365 additionally supplies Workplace interfaces in additional than 30 European languages. By integrating Europe’s languages and cultural belongings into its AI and cloud platforms, Microsoft goals each to safeguard the continent’s heritage and to empower its companies and residents within the digital period.

The corporate emphasises that these steps are purely supportive, contributing open knowledge, instruments, and experience moderately than proprietary belongings.