ELOQUENCE Project Advances Multilingual Conversational AI for Safety-Critical Applications

12/07/2024 ELOQUENCE, a Horizon Europe project, enhances conversational AI for safety-critical applications such as emergency response and healthcare. Supported by the European Commission, it boosts AI reliability across multiple languages and aligns with EU ethical standards to improve human-machine interactions.

Launched in January 2024, the ELOQUENCE project aims to integrate European linguistic diversity and ethical values into AI technologies. Leveraging innovative speech and language understanding technologies, ELOQUENCE targets critical needs in safety-related applications. The project emphasizes developing dialogue systems that are technically proficient and align with EU standards of privacy, inclusivity, and trust.

“Our aim is to develop AI systems that seamlessly integrate into safety-critical applications, enhancing response times and accuracy across Europe’s diverse linguistic landscape,” said Dr. Jordi Luque, Coordinator of the ELOQUENCE Project and Senior Research Scientist at Telefónica Research. “By focusing on multilingual and ethical AI, ELOQUENCE not only improves operational efficiencies but also establishes technical and ethical benchmarks that embody European values. This approach ensures AI complements rather than replaces human intelligence.”

ELOQUENCE introduces several key innovations to the field of conversational AI, leveraging a robust methodology that integrates advanced machine learning and data analytics. The project emphasizes iterative testing and validation across a broad spectrum of European languages, incorporating self-supervised learning and human-in-the-loop systems to ensure AI robustness and ethical compliance. By integrating cutting-edge speech and language understanding technologies into safety-critical applications, ELOQUENCE enhances support for multilingual and multimodal environments, including under-resourced languages. This strategic approach enables real-time feedback and continuous refinement of AI models through pilot implementations, ensuring the solutions effectively meet the diverse needs of communities across Europe.

An essential aim of the ELOQUENCE project is to demonstrate the practical application and market viability of its AI technologies in real-world settings. Dr. Luque emphasizes the critical role of industrial partners, stating, “Our industrial partners are integral to the project, contributing both expertise and real-world testing environments to ensure that the solutions developed are robust and applicable.”