July 20, 2022
Rongo AI fixing Māori pronunciation
Te Hiku Media have launched its new Rongo app to help people pronounce Māori words.
The app came out of the Far North iwi radio, media and technology hub’s seven-year, $13 million Papa Reo data science project to natural language processing tools.
It also has support from Te Mātāwai’s Te Reo Tukutuku fund.
Te Hiku chief executive Suzanne Duncan says Rongo uses a machine learning model to give users feedback on their pronunciation while they work their way through 24 lessons that introduce new sounds and build in complexity.
“People are loving the opportunity to slow down, take 10 minutes a day, fit it into whatever they are doing – kids, life, work – and just sit and practice without anybody watching, with no feeling of being judged and getting good feedback from the machine so really overwhelmingly positive feedback,” she says.
Rongo is available on the Apple App Store.