Using AI to Learn Pidgin English A Fun Tech Experiment

 Title: Using AI to Learn Pidgin English: A Fun Tech Experiment.

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The language uniting Nigeria is pidgin English. It is our everyday way of talking to each other, Lagos traffic, village meetings, Nollywood scripts, street banters. However, the peculiar thing is that in this case, the majority of AI assistants were programmed to sound like an American professor. They are familiar with Shakespeare and are not in a position to know how far.

I was going to conduct an experiment. Would I teach AI how to speak good Nigerian Pidgin? Not the stereotyped my friend ballet, but pure and natural and street-ready Pidgin, which in Oyingbo market would earn you a laugh. What I learned surprised me.

I began using ChatGPT since it is the most common AI used by Nigerians. I told it in no uncertain terms, "Talk to me in Nigerian Pidgin. What came back was awkward. It was like some one who had read a book about Pidgin but had never heard it. It was technically grammatically correct and stiff. It talked about words nobody talks. It seemed like an outsider who was overexerting himself.

So I changed my approach. I did not ask it to talk but began giving it real Pidgin. I would copy the discussions in WhatsApp groups, tweets by the Nigerian influencers and the chat in the trending skits. I copied them to ChatGPT and said: that is real Nigerian Pidgin. Learn from it. describe the patterns that you can observe. The Artificial Intelligence decoded sentence structures, widespread expressions, and word variations with changes in speakers.

Then I asked it to translate. I provided them with formal English sentences and requested Pidgin correspondents. "How are you?" became "How far?" and then "How far na?" depending on context. I am running late turned out to be I dey come small which is not grammatically correct but perfectly translates the meaning of a Nigerian. The AI was learning to make translation beyond words.

The actual breakthrough happened when I began correcting it. In instances where ChatGPT presented me with clumsy Pidgin, I explained to it the reason why it was so. No man says I am going to the market so. We say 'I dey go market.' The 'to' is too proper." ChatGPT remembered. It made an adjustment in the same discussion. In only a few exchanges, it began to give natural phrases such as You dey mad? and "Make we go" and "The thing don spoil."

I went a step further with the experiment. I requested ChatGPT to come up with Pidgin phrases in certain scenarios. Whom should I greet, my uncle that I respect? It gave me "Good evening sir. How body?" which is exactly right. How do I welcome my friend who I have not seen in sometime? It gave me "Ah! My guy! Where you dey since? How far na?" this made me laugh since it was ideal.

Next, I put the AI to the test in terms of cultural subtlety. I told it to tell me what is the difference between shebi and shey. It dissectioned it: "Shebi" anticipates a reply, such as right?. although shey is a true question, such as "is that true? It gave examples for each. I was genuinely impressed.

I had a desire to know whether AI would be able to comprehend Pidgin just the way it could create it. I spoke to it in Pidgin. Thou hast say I fit learn three months in code? It answered in Pidgin: "E fit hard but should you mind, you go do am. Start small. Learn one thing first." It reasoned and provided natural language advice.

The experiment was better than I thought it would be. In a matter of hours of intensive training, ChatGPT was already writing Pidgin that would have worked in most informal Nigerian dialogues. It was not perfect. It was still faced with regional variations. What may be the norm in Lagos may be weird in Warri. It also lacked the feeling of whether Pidgin should be used or English when it is required. In the case of a machine never designed to operate with the languages of Nigeria, though, the development was spectacular.

What does this mean for us? First, it is the fact that AI is finally up to speed with the way we actually communicate. Tech was alien because it was not English. This is because now we can communicate with AI in our daily language. That changes everything. A student with a formal English problem can now seek the assistance of an AI in Pidgin and get his or her answers. An entrepreneur can write messages to their customers using AI without the fear of coming off as too formal.

Second, it is that we have a role to play. AI learns from what we feed it. In case we desire AI that comprehends Nigeria, then we have to employ it in Nigerian manner. Each chat you do with ChatGPT in Pidgin improves the next individual. We are not just users. We are teachers.

Third, it demonstrates the fact that language is not just words. The AI learned Pidgin at a faster rate when I described the culture of the phrases. Why then say how far, rather than hello? Due to the fact that we appreciate the process of checking on the welfare of people and not only greeting them. What is the reason why we attaching to so many sentences? Since we seek consensus, since we seek connectedness. This was something that the AI was not able to pick up in a dictionary. It taught it by experience, by reproof, by actual conversation.

I am continuing to conduct the experiment. I am training ChatGPT on new phrases every week. I describe jargon that has just come up. When it is incorrect in tone, I correct it. It remembers. It gets better. It is not the best, but it is learning.

It is more about us than about AI. We are already using one of the most expressive, versatile, and popular languages in the world. Pidgin bridges us in terms of tribe, class, and geography. Now it is also able to interlink us with the future-making tools.

Try it yourself. Talk to Open ChatGPT and chat using Pidgin. Fix it when it is a funny thing to say. Speak it words in your locality. It can learn very fast you may think. And you may find that the language which you have been brought up speaking is just what the machines have been waiting to hear.