Suppose there is one talk that summarizes the history and challenges of the Arabic language in the technology world. In that case, it should be the one by Kuwaiti inventor and founder of Sakhr, Mohammed AlSharekh. Mr. AlSharekh brought the Arabic language to computers and the Sakhr BASIC programming language in Arabic in 1982. He and his team at Sakhr Software in Kuwait and Cairo spearheaded the first Arabic NLP algorithms, machine language, and voice recognition solutions for the Arab world in the 80s and the 90s. Nearly all the Arabic-related AI solutions are grounded by the work of Mr. AlSharekh and his team at Sakhr. Mr. AlSharekh was highly vocal about modernizing the Arabic dictionary to meet the 21st century, so his team built a modern Arab digital dictionary ( https://lnkd.in/ghwsa4Sv) in 2019. Though the research in Arabic NLP continues to be active in academia, the challenges of the Arabic language in the digital world that Mr. AlSharekh shares in his 5-year-old video remain highly relevant. One message he makes clear during the talk and speaks volumes is that only Arabs and Arabs alone can solve the challenges of the Arabic language in society.

Arabic Sakhr BASIC AlSharekh Archive AlSharekh TEDX Talk AlSharekh dictionary Wiki AI, and the future of the Arabic Language | Mohammad AlSharekh | TEDxAlShuwaikh