Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world, but most tools—from ChatGPT to Gemini—are designed for English speakers. For millions across Africa who communicate daily in local languages, this creates a digital wall that locks them out of the benefits of AI. In Ethiopia, three young innovators—Bekalu Temesgen, Baslael Selamu, and Eyob Desta—have decided to change that story. They built Ras, a multilingual AI assistant designed specifically for African users, starting with Ethiopia.
Unlike global tools that struggle with local dialects, Ras speaks Amharic, Tigrinya, and Afan Oromo, three of the most widely spoken Ethiopian languages. It’s built on Google’s Gemini model but fine-tuned with Ethiopian open-source datasets, local social media content, and cultural expressions. That way, Ras understands slang, humour, and context that outsiders often miss.
As Bekalu puts it: “AI tools are becoming more available globally, but a huge portion of Ethiopians are left out because they don’t understand English. We wanted to build a platform that speaks our languages and reflects our culture.”
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Story Builder: Teaching Through Local Tales
One of Ras’s standout features is Story Builder, a mini-app that brings storytelling—the lifeblood of African tradition—into the digital age.
In Basic Mode, parents or teachers simply give a prompt, such as: “Tell a story about Emperor Tewodros for my 5-year-old son.” Within minutes, Ras produces a narrated, illustrated, and subtitled storybook in the chosen language.
For those who want more control, Advanced Mode allows users to customise characters or even upload their own story ideas. Ras then transforms them into personalised digital storybooks or audiobooks.
This feature does more than entertain—it preserves cultural heritage, strengthens children’s connection to their mother tongue, and provides accessible learning resources where children’s books in local languages are scarce.
Business Guidance and Agentic AI: Empowering Adults
Ras isn’t only for children. The developers are creating an agentic AI mini-app to guide Ethiopians through the tough realities of starting and managing a business.
The app will help with:
- Writing and processing registration documents
- Understanding permits and licences
- Navigating government offices and requirements
- Providing updates on policies and regulations
For young entrepreneurs in Ethiopia—where paperwork is often complicated and access to professional advice is expensive—this could be revolutionary. Instead of struggling with endless bureaucracy, users will have a digital assistant to hold their hand.
In Bekalu’s words: “We aim to create an AI-powered guide that walks users through everything—from developing a business idea to knowing which government offices to visit and what paperwork to prepare.”
This innovation highlights Ras’s bigger vision: to make AI practical, useful, and accessible in daily life, not just a tech experiment for elites.
Vision for the Future: Regional Growth and Inclusive AI
Though it started in Ethiopia, the Ras team is already looking across the continent. Their next big step is to integrate Swahili, a language spoken by more than 100 million people across East Africa. That would instantly expand Ras’s reach and impact.
The vision is clear:
- Democratise AI access for African communities that global platforms ignore.
- Preserve and promote local cultures through storytelling, language, and context.
- Empower people to participate meaningfully in the digital economy.
This goes beyond Ethiopia. Across Africa, the real digital divide is not only about internet access—it’s also about language barriers. By building a tool that understands people as they are, Ras tackles a problem that Silicon Valley has largely overlooked.
As Bekalu explains: “Our aim isn’t just to build another chatbot… We’re creating tools that empower Ethiopians, preserve our stories, and help people participate meaningfully in a world increasingly driven by AI.”
Why Ras Matters
- Cultural Relevance: Unlike imported AI tools, Ras understands local expressions, dialects, and cultural idioms.
- Education First: Through Story Builder, it nurtures children’s love for reading in their mother tongue.
- Practical Impact: From simplifying business registration to giving legal guidance, it addresses real challenges.
- Scalable Future: With Swahili and other African languages in sight, Ras could become a continental game-changer.
At its heart, Ras is proof that Africa doesn’t have to wait for solutions from elsewhere. By blending tradition with technology, it shows how innovation rooted in local culture can bridge the language gap—one of the most invisible, but most critical, barriers to digital inclusion on the continent.
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