The Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah participated in the International Festival of Arabic Language and Culture in Milan, organized by the College of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literature and the Arabic Language Research Center at the Catholic University. The event was titled “Language and Artificial Intelligence: Limit to the Past or Horizon to the Future” and was sponsored by the Sharjah Book Authority. The event was attended by the President of the Executive Body, His Excellency Ahmed bin Rakad Al Ameri, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, His Excellency Mohammed Hassan Khalaf, and the Director-General of the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority, along with Dr. Mohammad Safi Al Mustaghanmi, the Secretary-General of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah.
The festival featured a panel discussion titled “Efforts of Linguistic Acquisition Technology in the Arabic Language”, where 35 researchers from 18 countries participated. Dr. Ahmed Safi Al Mustaghanmi spoke about “The Historical Lexicon of the Arabic Language and Artificial Intelligence: Techniques Used and Results Achieved”, alongside Dr. Walid Ghali from the Aga Khan University in London, who discussed “Traditional Philology and Linguistic Acquisition Technology” presented by Maria Theresa Zanolla, the President of the European Council for Languages at the Catholic University.
Dr. Ahmed Safi Al Mustaghanmi highly appreciated the efforts exerted by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah, in producing the “Historical Lexicon of the Arabic Language” project and praised his role in promoting the Arabic language within the Emirates and on a global level.
He noted that the lexicon relies on an intelligent system that enhances a deeper understanding of the Arabic language, contributes to processing and analyzing data efficiently, and facilitates intelligent machine interaction with Arabic linguistic databases.
Al Mustaghanmi mentioned that Artificial Intelligence plays an effective role in the Historical Lexicon project of the Arabic language, where the project is equipped with smart scanner algorithms that have advanced learning capabilities and continuous development, allowing for accurate recognition of Arabic letters.
He added that an intelligent scanner with an accuracy of up to 99.9% has been used, capable of understanding letters in various forms and automatically enhancing image clarity to ensure result quality.
He also mentioned that the lexicon platform is equipped with an intelligent search system based on dynamic data to help achieve accurate results in the shortest time possible. He emphasized that the project’s machine learning engine focuses on data and algorithms to simulate human learning methodology and gradually improve accuracy, highlighting the importance of human supervision at all project stages to ensure quality and efficiency.
He pointed out that the Arabic language can be addressed through artificial computing techniques and can advance to advanced levels with conditions and standards because the Arabic language is characterized by its standardization in many of its vocabulary and structures, and it has a precise generative derivational system.
Al Mustaghanmi discussed the main challenges facing language in the field of artificial intelligence, mentioning that imagination is essential in the human thinking process, and the real challenge is how machines can fill this gap.
He emphasized that metaphors are an essential part of language and serve not only poetic, creative, and literary purposes but remain consistently linked to any subject or goal, contributing to misleading the linguistic message to achieve intentional confusion that cannot be easily removed or effectively conveyed for the future.
Al Mustaghanmi affirmed that humans are complex beings with precise talents and skills, and studying and analyzing their language poses a challenging task close to impossible because it reflects their thoughts, feelings, and serves as a true representation of their existence.
He explained that it is usually expected that the recipient can fill in the gaps and complete the omissions in the speaker’s message based on their natural knowledge and analysis, posing a significant challenge for machines.
Al Mustaghanmi said that updating computers with ancient authentic language is essential because the data they are provided with typically comes in the language of a…The contemporary and simplified with the addition of other languages from modern journalism and media, leading to the distancing of artificial intelligence from understanding the aesthetics of classical Arabic language in which the Holy Quran was revealed and ancient poetry was recited.
The session concluded by stating that clarity, explanation, and elucidation are divine gifts to humans, where major processes occur in a person’s mind while choosing between available alternatives and formulating linguistic messages. He added that if we ask the machine to disclose and clarify, we have wronged it, as its function is to assist us in gathering and storing data, improving its presentation, and speeding it up.
