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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, recently unveiled artificial intelligence (AI) models which can translate more than 4,000 languages. These Massively Multilingual Speech (MMS) models are behind speech-to-text versions which are able to identify over 4,000 spoken languages, and text-to-speech versions which can generate speech from over 1,100 languages. In order for these models to learn these languages, large amounts of training data were needed. From these texts, the models could learn the languages by identifying patterns and relationships between words in a sentence and, eventually, translating the languages and outputting text or speech. Chat GPT and other popular AI applications can identify around 100 languages. To find sufficient training data in many more languages for its MMS models, Meta turned to Bible texts and audio recordings as the Bible has been translated into many languages. (As at September 2022, Wycliffe’s statistics show that the New Testament has been translated into over 1,600 languages.) Meta compiled New Testament readings in over 1,100 languages, providing an average of 32 hours of data per language. Other texts included recordings of Bible stories, evangelistic messages and songs. Altogether, over 500,000 hours of voice data of over 1,400 unique languages was used to train the self-supervised models. This was approximately five times as many languages than had ever been attempted before. The many Bible translations used as training data are the result of decades of work of missionaries and scholars of the past and, more recently, members of Bible translation organisations such as Wycliffe Global Alliance, SIL International and United Bible Societies. Partner organisations such as Faith Comes By Hearing and YouVersion then distribute audio recordings and the original texts free on their websites. Meta’s use of translated Bible texts highlights an oft-overlooked benefit of the work of Bible translation: not only is God’s Word made available to many people groups in their heart language, but languages that are in danger of disappearing are also preserved. Hopefully, coupling AI with the translated texts will enable technology to “speak” in the preferred language of these people, thus helping to keep their languages alive.

by Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance The artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022. Andrew Lang, senior professor of mathematics at Oral Roberts University, called it “a Sputnik moment” for AI, because it has launched the equivalent of an arms race among big tech companies and open-source communities of developers. (ChatGPT and now GPT-4 were released by OpenAI, which states its mission as “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” GPT stands for “generative pretrained transformer”—a term still foreign to most non-tech people.) Whereas a search engine like Google is good at finding things, a GPT can actually create original content based on the information it finds. GPTs work with giant databases of information and can generate words, images, code and more in response to prompts entered by the user. They learn to predict the probability of given words or sequences, and thus keep improving the more they are used. While big tech’s primary agenda with AI is profit, governments may have other purposes. For instance, Lang said, China’s government has told developers there that any Chinese AI system must be built with a bias toward socialism. Whatever the motivation, AI systems all have biases based on the data fed into them. Christians cannot afford to stay out of these conversations, Lang told the audience. “The church has missed opportunities to speak and lead in various subjects. There’s a danger here that we may do the same thing with AI. … Tech companies will not produce something that will be unbiased and favourable to a Christian worldview. ... If there are going to be thought leaders on morality and ethics in AI, I think it should be us.” No language left behind? Only 33 of the world’s languages are “thriving” today in terms of data support, said SIL’s Whitenack. That means any translation help from AI is still limited to those most commonly spoken languages (think: ChatGPT, Google translate or Amazon Alexa). And, currently it is far more difficult and expensive to develop or use AI tools for languages that do not use English or Latin script. Then he showed the current ProgressBible statistic of 1,544 remaining languages with no Scripture and needing Bible translation to start. “There’s a real sense that these remaining languages are being further and further marginalised because their languages are not represented in modern AI systems,” Whitenack told the audience. “All of you are stepping into that challenge and saying, languages shouldn’t be further marginalised by AI and NLP (natural language processing) systems. We should be able to innovate with AI and NLP for Bible translation. We should be able to help people engage with Scripture online, regardless of what language they speak. Past what academia and big tech is doing, you are the ones who are innovating in this space.” Radical generosity Several of the week’s speakers mentioned the need for wider access to already-published resources. “A lot of innovation used to take place within individual organisations or companies,” Wycliffe USA President John Chesnut told the group in his opening welcome. “I think God is busting down those walls. ... Your primary identity is not the logo that you walk under. It’s the fact that you are children of God ... and he has invited you to work together.” Mark Finzel of Biblica wondered whether new possibilities could be opened if already-translated Scriptures and resources were released under open, Creative Commons licensing. “I could challenge anyone in this room,” he said. “If you have licensed materials, copyrighted materials, just ask the Lord, see what doors the Lord would open if you did that. ... God’s Word was freely given to us, and we want to freely release it as he did to us.” Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance

by Wycliffe Global Alliance Links: Large infographic Small infographic Q&A: 2023 Global Scripture Access Total languages in the world: 7,394 Number of known users: 7.42 billion* *The global population is estimated to be 8.05 billion. However, language user statistics tend to lag behind actual population statistics due to challenges in gathering and updating information. According to the most recently available information in SIL’s Ethnologue, 7.42 billion people use the world’s 7,394 known languages. For statistical agreement, percentages used here are based on the Ethnologue population number. Thus, global population percentages are given as “up to…” rather than an exact number. Languages and people with Scripture 3,658 languages with some Scripture - 7.23 billion people (up to 97.4% of all people) 736 languages with a complete Bible - 5.96 billion people (up to 80% of all people) 1,658 languages with a complete New Testament (and possibly Old Testament portions) - 824 million people (up to 11.1% of all people) 1,264 languages with some translated Bible portions - 449 million people (up to 6.1% of all people) Scripture access status 1,268 languages need translation (or preparatory work) to begin - 99.8 million people (up to 1.3% of all people) 1,320 languages have work in progress - 82.1 million people (up to 1.1% of all people) 1,148 languages either use Scripture in another language, or are not vital enough to plan translation work** - 9.6 million people (about 0.1% of all people) **In most cases, the people use another language which already has at least some Scripture. Sometimes, their first language is disappearing from use altogether. The reality is often more complex. Bible translation in progress Bible translation is currently happening in 3,283 languages in 167 countries. This work impacts 1.15 billion people, or about 15.5% of all language users, who have (or will soon have) new access to at least some portions of Scripture in their first language. This number does not include people who already have a full Bible but are updating their existing translations. Need Bible translation to start 99.8 million people, speaking 1,268 languages, still need translation work to begin: Africa - 382 languages, 11.2 million people Americas - 91 languages, 0.61 million people Asia - 435 languages, 86.1 million people Europe - 37 languages, 1.5 million people Pacific - 323 languages, 0.37 million people Wycliffe Global Alliance involvement snapshot, 2023 Alliance organisations are working in at least 2,608 languages. Alliance organisations are involved in work in at least 141 countries. Wycliffe Global Alliance historical snapshot Over their history, Alliance organisations have been involved in the translation of New Testaments or Bibles in at least 1,865 languages. Over their history, Alliance organisations have been involved in translating Scripture portions in an additional 996 languages. Statistics are rarely as simple as the numbers imply Even though we strive to provide an accurate snapshot, Scripture access statistics are complex. For example, determining translation need is not as simple as determining which languages do or do not have Scripture. Most of the languages with “some Scripture” need more, and even full Bibles often undergo revisions. Also, comparisons with previous annual statistics are challenging and sometimes not useful, as data definitions and collection methods improve. A better way of measuring Bible translation progress Statistics provide one lens through which to measure progress in worldwide Bible translation. The real stories are found in changed lives and communities as people encounter God through his Word, and as the worldwide church moves toward greater unity in Christ. Alliance organisations continue to explore other important indicators of progress such as: How are language communities experiencing life-changing impact from Scripture? Are churches increasingly taking leadership in the work of Bible translation? Are churches, communities, and organisations partnering more effectively to carry out the work of translation together? To read more, see: A missiology of progress: Assessing advancement in the Bible translation movement by Dr. Kirk Franklin. Wycliffe Global Alliance presentations of global Scripture access statistics are compiled annually from data provided through ProgressBible by Alliance organisations, SIL International, United Bible Societies and many other partners. Data is current as of 1 September 2023, and is based on the most recently available information about first language users in SIL’s Ethnologue. Further stories about people and projects are available at wycliffe.net and from your nearest Alliance organisation. 2022 Global Scripture Access Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance

Why did Zephaniah prophesy destruction on the nations surrounding Israel? Zephaniah 1:2: “’I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,’ declares the Lord.” After calling on Judah to repent for her sins or face judgement, Zephaniah goes on to prophesy judgement on the surrounding nations. These were traditional enemies of Israel and Judah, steeped in idolatry, and represented all the nations of the world that did not worship God. To the West, the Philistines worshipped Baal and Asherah, long a temptation to idolatry for the Israelites. To the East, Moab and Ammon had not always been enemies of Israel, being descendants of Lot, Abraham’s nephew. However, the relationship had deteriorated. They worshipped various Canaanite deities. To the South, Cush (also known as Nubia or Ethiopia) was a wealthy and powerful nation. They were closely related to Egypt and worshipped the Egyptian gods. To the North, Assyria was a dominant power of the Ancient Near East. They worshipped Ashur, as well as other deities. About a century before Zephaniah’s prophecy, Assyria had taken a large number of Israelites into exile.

Stories from the Field, 1 August 2023 Speakers: Dr Abeneazer & Dr Jessica Ethiopia – a country with a population of over 123 million people and 129 people groups, each with its own language and traditions. The majority religion is Ethiopian Orthodoxy, with 29% of the people groups in the country still unreached. The main trade language in Ethiopia is Amharic, but the government is supportive of multilingual education – ethnic languages are used in the early years of schooling, transitioning to Amharic later. Tertiary education is in English. This year, 2023, SIL Ethiopia celebrated its 50th anniversary, and also achieved the milestone of having a Bible translation (BT) project begun for every people group that needs it! Altogether, SIL Ethiopia is working with 34 languages, at various stages of engagement. With so much to do in the country, organisations working there have formed a Collaborative Partnership for BT. Seven organisations, including SIL Ethiopia, divide up the work to avoid duplication and share resources. Many of the unreached people groups have low levels of education and literacy, and some languages do not have a writing system! So Oral Bible Translation and Oral Bible Storying techniques are used. Oral methods are more culturally appropriate for such groups as storytelling is a familiar part of their culture. Besides BT, there is also a felt need for more work to encourage Scripture Use and provide Trauma Healing in the people groups. The greatest need now is for more consultants, advisors and literacy workers. Currently, there are only three Ethiopian consultants who work alongside several expatriate consultants. Local Christian denominations are now getting more involved in BT, which is a great item of praise. Prayer items: Praise that a Bible translation project has begun in every people group that needs it. Pray for more human and financial resources for Bible translation and Scripture Use in Ethiopia. Pray that the gospel will bear much fruit among Ethiopia’s unreached people groups. About the speakers: Both speakers teach at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa and are adjunct professors at Columbia International University (USA). Dr Abeneazer specialises in New Testament and Missiology, and is also Director of the Capacity Building Department at SIL Ethiopia. Dr Jessica specialises in Intercultural Studies, and is the author of Loving the Stranger: Welcoming Immigrants in the Name of Jesus and the Loving the Stranger Blog. They live in Ethiopia with their two children.

Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids: A Practical Guide to Preventive Care, by Lauren Wells, 2020. (246 pgs) This is a practical, easy-to-read guide to preventive care for Third-Culture Kids (TCKs) and anyone who cares for them. Definition: A TCK is a person who spends a significant part of his or her developmental years in a culture other than their parents' culture. TCKs are often envied for their exciting multicultural lives and experiences. This cross-cultural exposure makes them adaptable, resilient and empathetic. However, they also experience considerable stress, loss, grief and identity issues from repeated transitions. Lauren Wells advocates intentionally providing preventive care to TCKs, and shares practical advice and strategies for parents to help their TCKs grow up emotionally healthy. For each topic in her book, Wells makes suggestions for parents under these headings: Conversations – guides and ideas for talking with TCKs Awareness – of the challenges of the TCK life Relationship – between TCKs and their parents Example – how parents can model how to handle transitions This book is available from: Amazon (print, Kindle)

Why were the people of Israel and Judah exiled? 2 Kings 17:6: “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria.” Habakkuk 1:6: “I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own.” God used both Assyria and Babylon as agents of judgement against Israel and Judah respectively because of their idolatry and rebellion. These events took place over extended periods of time, with several forced deportations (exiles), culminating in the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in 722 BCE (Israel; 2 Kings 17) and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE (Judah; 2 Kings 24). God eventually fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy that Judah would return to Jerusalem after 70 years, although not all chose to return (Jeremiah 25; Ezra 1). Forced deportations were a common practice in the Ancient Near East. Groups of people possessing valuable skills and knowledge were moved from subjugated lands to the conquerors’ homelands in order to bring economic and cultural benefits to the conquerors. The deportees were usually moved as families or larger groups, promised a better future, and expected to integrate with the conquering population. At the same time, by removing large groups of skilled people from the conquered lands, the risk of rebellion there would be reduced.

Stories from the Field, 4 July 2023 How do you start reaching out to an unreached people group (UPG) who have hardly heard the gospel? Saifon is a member of Wycliffe Thailand who serves and works among an unreached people group in South Thailand. She shared about her efforts to mobilise Thai churches to get involved with cross-cultural missions within their own country. In the south of Thailand, there are fewer Thais than in the central part of the country. This UPG forms a majority in this region. Most of these people have never heard the gospel. There are very few Christians among this people group, so outsiders must make the effort if this community is to be reached. Saifon’s effervescent and infectious enthusiasm came through as she emphasised the importance of trusting God when embarking on the “Mission Impossible” of reaching out to a UPG. She acknowledged that it can be hard and difficult, but she continues to pray for God to move in the people’s hearts. She said that our role is to pray and obey, and then “Mission Impossible” becomes “Mission Possible”! She shared some of the strategies she has used to reach UPGs, especially among the younger generations. 1. Kindness During the Covid pandemic when there were needs within the community, she and some other Christians helped to distribute useful items to the needy. After making friends with a few people, she managed to hold a few Bible studies. However, they had to stop when some of them caught Covid, and the studies were not resumed. They also taught English to the children when schools were closed, until schools reopened two months later. She has also arranged Christmas parties over the past three years. She continues to stay in contact with the friends she has made while looking for other opportunities to reach out to this community. 2. Schools Through two members of the local church who are from this community, she has helped arrange for a volunteer English teacher to teach in the local school. This is much appreciated by the school and the community. The pastor of a local church also started a soccer club for the school children. Saifon continues to encourage the local church to pray towards eventually planting a church in this community. 3. Social media Saifon has set up social media channels (website, Facebook, Insta) with materials contextualised for this group. She writes the content, and a group of students helps her with the design and uploading of the materials. She regards this as “broad sowing” of the seed of the gospel, and in 2022, her website garnered 71,000 views! 4. Prayer network She has also started a website with articles and materials about this group, targeted at Thai Christians and others who have a heart for this UPG. She wants to encourage Thai Christians to pray for the people, and local churches to back this outreach movement. She hopes that Thai Christians will regard this UPG as their “neighbours”. 5. Discovery trips Saifon has also led trips for small groups to explore the area, meet the people and experience the culture. She hopes that this will encourage them to be more engaged in praying for this UPG and supporting the work among them. Prayer points: Pray for the local churches to get involved in the outreach to this UPG. Pray that God will work through the social media channels to reach out to the community and also the churches. Pray for wisdom as she seeks ways to work with this community and with the local churches.

by Jim Killam, Wycliffe Global Alliance Imagine a Scripture engagement tool that could quickly answer any Bible question accurately, in many languages, and point to resources. A GPT (generative pretrained transformer) works with giant databases of information to generate words, images, code and more in response to prompts entered by the user. General-knowledge GPTs can already answer questions about the Bible based on what they’ve been fed from the Internet. Bible-specific GPTs are under development right now, too (here is a prominent example). All of which raises some red flags. What if the user asks a bad question? (What does the book of Leviticus say about AI?) Or what if it’s a good question but the GPT has been fed data that includes serious theological errors? Adam Graber, digital theology consultant and cohost of the Device & Virtue podcast, wrestled with these questions during the recent Missional AI Summit. First, he paraphrased N.T. Wright in stating the purpose of Bible engagement: To connect with God and have his Word permeate our entire being. To be inwardly equipped for the church’s outward mission in the world. Designed and used well, he said, Bible GPTs could play a significant role in that process—but not if used out of order. “God speaks first. Not the Internet and not us,” Graber said. “Our work is to feed on God’s Word, and to use that food for energy and for mission.” As an example, he said, a Bible GPT user could ask, “With John 5, what questions or issues does this passage ask me to wrestle with?” “And it keeps me in this position of Bible engagement, not Bible replacement,” Graber said. “It keeps the GPT in the role of supplement, and not substitute.” Designers will need to design for that sort of practice, he said. “I think we need to align our systems to the purposes of Bible engagement. Bible GPTs won’t rise to the intentions of designers. They will fall to the habits of users. As designers we need to ask, does the system default to Bible engagement or GPT engagement? Does the system encourage connections and reflections with God himself? Does the system make it easier for users to love God and to feed on his Word? How do we stay aligned with that purpose of connecting with God, being transformed by that interaction and being equipped for mission?” That’s about much more than simply the AI super-version of Googling for answers to Bible questions—a practice Graber believes can inhibit spiritual growth. Bible knowledge has value, but knowledge alone does not necessarily engage people with God. “It’s failing to allow us to digest Scripture, to connect with God, to be transformed by that interaction and to be equipped for the mission,” he said. What’s in? What’s out? One key question facing designers of Bible GPTs is, which Bible-resource writings go into a database? Which are left out, and why? How will denominational differences be accounted for? How to make sure that diverse Christian voices from different cultures are included? “Whoever has the most content in the database is going to have the most visibility,” Graber said. “The prolific Methodists are going to have more visibility than the quiet Mennonites. The loudest traditions actually pull the average in their direction. And it becomes a popularity contest, if it wasn’t already.” Graber’s message was less about specific solutions and more about encouraging AI developers to think proactively about them—or the church worldwide could reap the consequences. “But if we’re clear and conscientious about how we design Bible GPTs, I think the potential opportunities can be incredible,” he said. “And I believe that the best-designed Bible GPTs will be those that encourage and enable Christians to connect with God to transform them and equip them for mission.” Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance

With non-written forms of information such as audio and video becoming more and more prevalent, does every language still need a written Bible? For many of us who take literacy and a written Bible for granted, our instinctive answer would probably be “Of course!”. Historically, much of the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, was initially passed down through oral tradition. It was only later, when literacy became more widespread, that the Scriptures began to be recorded and disseminated in writing. As ancient civilisations developed, writing systems were devised. Initially, these were only to record texts that were considered important enough to be preserved accurately for reference and study. This was an improvement over relying on the memories of specially trained people whose major role was to act as record-keepers for their communities. Now that we have the means to accurately record and preserve audio and video, are there any benefits of writing down texts, such as the Scriptures? Here are a few: Writers have time to deliberate over word choice (and many/most audio and video scripts would be first written and edited before recording). Written texts can be corrected and edited more easily (e.g., using a ‘global change’). Readers are more easily able to scan back and forth within a text, and to study, compare, and interpret at their leisure. Written texts are less technology-dependent for access! Beyond these benefits, it has been observed that a language community often has a higher view of their own language once it can be written down and they have written materials in their language. This usually boosts their pride in their cultural identity. Translating the Bible in an Unwritten Language Are there languages without a writing system? Yes, there are! There are still many languages, often those of minority ethnic groups, which are entirely oral and have no established writing system or orthography. An orthography is a system for representing a language in written form, and includes the symbols that represent the sounds as well as the rules that govern how the symbols are arranged when written down (e.g., word breaks, punctuation, diacritics, capitalisation, hyphenation, etc.). To translate the Bible into a language without an orthography, an Oral Bible Translation (OBT) method can be used. This avoids having to first devise an orthography, then teach the people to read and write their own language, and so provides the Scriptures to the people more quickly. However, even if an oral method of translation is preferred, at least some members of the translation team would need a way to write down the text to make it easier to correct and revise. So, if the language has no writing system, one of the first needs is to devise an orthography. And eventually, some of the believers will probably want to have a text version to read and study. How do you devise an orthography? Several factors have to be considered when designing an orthography: Government policies, e.g., a certain type of script may be mandated. Type of script, e.g., character-based, alphabet-based, phonetic, etc. Ease of learning and use, e.g., it should represent all sounds of the language with symbols that are easy to distinguish and write. Ease of transferring literacy skills to other languages the reader would want to read, e.g., similar to the national language. Acceptability to the target readers who may regard a specific type of script as prestigious. Practical issues, e.g., ease of word-processing on computers and printing. As you can see, this is not an easy task! A whole team comprising different specialist skillsets such as linguistics, literacy, font design, IT, etc. is needed. So if you have the skills to contribute to orthography design, and want to help get God’s word written for those who want to read it in their own language, contact us! Links to articles about OBT: Oral Bible Translation Moves to the Forefront Through a Consultant’s Eyes: A Glimpse of Oral Bible Translation