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The Herald Scotland

'A-Aye': Will artificial intelligence be a boon for Scots?

MacDonald, a native Doric speaker from the North East of Scotland, says the site is a 'major opportunity' for Scots speakers. 'We don't have any major outlets doing news articles in Scots', he tells me. 'There's a lack of funding and no one can pay for reporters to write in Scots.' 'AI is used to draft the article in English', he adds, noting: 'then I translate it into Scots using a learned language model I have developed, using three different Scots dialects.' Artificial intelligence has also been used to generate images and photographs on the site. Oor News was launched last year. 'The process has two parts,' MacDonald explains. 'First, I submit very detailed prompts about how to write in the style I like. Once I build up a significant level of articles, the model will be able to rely on them to develop content.' Articles can be read in 'Staundart' Scots, 'Nor East' Scots, and 'Nordern Isles' Scots. Born near Aberdeen before moving to Shetland as a child, MacDonald's interest comes from his own experiences with Scots. 'I am naturally a Doric speaker', he says, 'and have often felt challenged to fit in with other Scots speakers.' MacDonald wanted to provide a range of different options in a bid to ensure that all Scots speakers are represented, regardless of regional dialectal differences. Asked for his thoughts on using artificial intelligence in the writing process, instead of employing human writers, MacDonald says: 'AI streamlines the time it takes me to write. I write around three or four articles a week. Each takes a few hours. In the future, it might be able to take just thirty minutes. I'd like to expand into a team of Scots language activists.' 'I am a born Scots speaker myself. I'm not a Scots expert, but I am keen to ask for feedback.' It is really about the time. I could do a translation by hand, but it takes too long. Now, I can rapidly produce things.' Read more from Josh Pizzuto-Pomaco: Does Glasgow need a 'rat tsar' to crackdown on city rodent problem? How one homelessness charity is working to end Glasgow's housing crisis Breakfast at the camp: My morning with the Glasgow Uni student protestors Whistleblower reveals 'dire' truth of violence in Scottish primary schools Oor News has been criticised online by creatives working in the Scots leid, something MacDonald is acutely aware of. An OorNews 'parody' account was set up earlier this month, poking fun at MacDonald's bona fides. One post from April 11 reads: 'This account is aw fur the Scots leid and the need fur a Scots language news website! It's a braw idea. But Scots speakers deserve better than AI-generated pish lik Oor News. 'It's also worth notin thit news agencies are meant tae find original stories - that's no whit Oor News is daein. Rehashin press releases - even when ye tak AI oot the equation - is bad journalism.' One prominent critic of Oor News is Scots author Emma Grae. Writing in The National earlier this week, she wrote: 'While I agree with MacDonald that there's a place for a Scots language news website, especially in light of the recent resurgence and interest in the leid, it should not be an AI one. 'Scots-language news should always be written by speakers, and any Scots news outlet should be a platform for humans to showcase their own, legitimate and original journalism from the get-go – as much as press releases inevitably make their way into the news cycle.' Grae added: 'The leid is an oral language after all, and it deserves better treatment than simply being used to regurgitate existing content, which is being illustrated with generative, out-of-proportion images. 'The development of Scots AI is also incredibly demotivating for speakers creating in Scots.' Emma Grae is a prominent critic of AI involvement in Scots. In response, MacDonald tells me that his model is always evolving based upon feedback from readers of the site. He adds: 'I'm not trying to take anything away from creatives. I appreciate the fear and understand where they are coming from. Their points are valid, but Oor News is not trying to create AI-generated poems and novels. 'The model provides science news, but it would be rubbish at Scots poetry or fiction.' Regardless of his critics, MacDonald has big plans for the future. 'I would really like the future generation of Scots speaking only Scots. We are bombarded with English. With a good AI model, we could develop tech which would allow us to use phones and computers completely in Scots. 'I would like to see Scots news readers. An AI model could handle the scripts and translation, and Scots speakers could make the story their own. At Abertay University, psychologist Neil Kirk is using Scots for another purpose - to explore how people perceive AI voice recordings. Kirk explains: 'I took recordings of my voice and transformed it into different dialects using AI. 'The recordings were heard in Standard English and in Dundonian, using phrases like 'the child was crying' vs 'the bairn was greeting'. 'People weren't that good at telling the AI Scots apart from the real speakers. Around 57% accuracy. That's essentially a guess. Researcher Neil Kirk of Abertay University (Image: Supplied) He noted: 'Notably, when people heard the Dundonian passages, they were much more likely to say it was a human speaker. 'Interestingly, people from England did not seem to exhibit the same effect. I guess it all sounded Scottish to them.' Kirk says this is because people don't expect AI to be able to generate phrases in Scots, while they are more aware of its ability to generate English voices. He adds: 'People's expectation of AI can influence their perception. People don't assume that AI can generate Scots phrases. As such, certain dialect and minority language communities could be more at risk of voice-based scams.' 'In the real world, you wouldn't be focused on whether or not the recording is AI. So the [hit rate] could be even lower.' Setting aside the ethical implications of AI, Kirk believes the technology could have a range of outcomes for Scots speakers. 'There are certainly positive applications', he says. 'AI can allow people to clone their voice or customise much more personalised voices. 'However, it could also be taken in a fraudulent way. The technology is there, I'm just interested in how people perceive it. 'AI could lead to better language technology, but with benefits come risks. This is a very double-edged sword.' Creatives have raised the alarm over the use of AI over the last several years. A spokesperson for the Society of Authors told The Herald that the increased use of generative AI had led to falling income for many illustrators and translators: The spokesperson said: "Authors are being robbed of their right to be remunerated for the use of their work by AI systems, whether that's when the work is used to train the system or when derivative material is generated. "We are also extremely worried about the long-term impact AI will have on creators, as the risk to future earnings is very real. "If AI systems can mimic creators' style and anyone can simply ask an AI system to produce an in-the-style-of commission, there is a substantial risk that creators will lose out on work, or to charge less in order to compete with the cheap alternative offered by AI. In February, 1000 musicians released a silent album in protest of proposed changes to the UK's copyright laws, which would allow AI companies to use copyrighted materials to train models without securing a licence. The album's title simply read: 'Is this what we really want'? A worthy question indeed.