Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has launched BelMasry, a free AI platform that processes Egyptian colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic and translates content into 50 foreign languages.
Developed by the ministry’s Applied Innovation Center, the platform is being presented as Egypt’s first sovereign AI platform of its kind. Its pilot combines speech-to-text transcription, machine translation and text-to-speech technology.
BelMasry’s transcription engine can process different Egyptian Arabic dialects and Modern Standard Arabic, distinguish speakers in multi-party recordings and reduce background noise. Its translation engine supports Arabic-to-foreign-language and foreign-language-to-Arabic exchanges, while the text-to-speech system is designed to produce natural-sounding Arabic.
According to the ministry, potential uses include virtual assistants, digital education, media production, voice-enabled government services and communication for expatriates and researchers.
The ministry said the platform was built using Egyptian and Arabic linguistic datasets to better recognise local expressions, cultural references and emotional nuances. It is available free of charge to individuals, institutions and developers through BelMasry’s dedicated platform.
The launch supports Egypt’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy for 2025–2030, which prioritises national AI models, Arabic-language datasets, data infrastructure and skills development.
Source: Ahram Online
