Project Name: Chi, A Community-Powered Platform for Multilingual Audio Data Collection
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: Princess Innocent
Describe your project.
Overview
Chi is a lightweight, privacy-conscious web application designed to collect, organize, and store audio recordings of indigenous languages. The platform enables native speakers to record translations of English words, phrases, and sentences using their own voices, forming a foundational dataset for it’s future AI translation model.
The global south is home to over 5000 spoken languages, yet most speech AI systems ignore or underrepresent them — due to a lack of accessible, labeled, and inclusive audio datasets. Without data, these languages risk digital extinction.
Existing efforts (like Mozilla’s Common Voice) barely scratch the surface of African language diversity and often rely on written text, which excludes non-literate speakers.
Chi solves this by:
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Empowering native speakers to record spoken translations of English prompts in their own languages.
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Storing that data securely, permanently and decentralised, giving researchers, developers, and communities access to ethically sourced language data.
Who Benefits From Your Project?
Linguistics and Researchers
Accessibility, Representation And Preservation of indigenous languages
AI And NLP Developers
Educational Institutions
How Does The Project Serve The Foundation’s Mission Of User-owned Data?
- Decentralized Preservation of Cultural Knowledge
Indigenous languages are disappearing faster than they can be documented. By using Sia:
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We store cultural data securely and immutably, ensuring it outlives local servers, political changes, or institutional neglect.
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The project demonstrates how Web3 tools can protect heritage, not just finance.
- Data Ownership for Indigenous Contributors
Chi is designed so that native speakers contribute voice recordings with full knowledge and consent — and their contributions are stored permanently on Sia’s decentralized network, not a private or centralized database.
This ensures:
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Transparency: Contributors can verify and access the content they help create.
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Autonomy: No corporation, government, or institution can lock, alter, or delete the cultural data once it’s on Sia.
3. Model for Future Decentralized Datasets
Chi Voice will serve as a replicable framework for other regions and cultures to follow.
By showing how Sia can power large-scale, ethically sourced voice datasets, we:
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Encourage developers and researchers to use Sia for decentralized data hosting
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Create momentum for a new standard of AI dataset sovereignty
Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on that list? No
Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on that list? No
Grant Specifics
Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:
Use of Funds: $8000 requested
| Item | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Salary (full-stack platform development) | $6000 |
| Admin/hosting/ storage fees (1 year) | $2000 |
What are the goals of this small grant? Please provide a general timeline for completion.
Our goal is to deliver a functional web platform for multilingual audio data collection at the end of the grant.
Month 1: Web App MVP A production-ready web interface for task-based audio recording with user onboarding, metadata tagging (language, location, gender, etc.), and consent forms.
Month 2: Admin Dashboard Basic moderation tools for reviewing and managing submissions, quality control, and metadata tagging.
Month 3:
Sia-Based Storage Integration Audio files and metadata stored via S5 for decentralized, verifiable, and permanent access.
Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:
Low Participation in Rare Languages
Some indigenous languages may have few active speakers, limiting dataset diversity.
Poor Audio Quality
Background noise or unclear recordings may affect usability of submissions.
Incorrect Language Labeling
Users may misidentify dialects, leading to inaccurate metadata.
Internet Access Constraints
Contributors in rural areas may face challenges uploading recordings due to weak connectivity.
Development Information
Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
Yes
Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.
Do you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
Yes we will submit reports on our progress here on the forum
Contact info
Email: [email protected]