site.btaUPDATED BTA and BAS Institute for Bulgarian Language Sign Partnership Agreement

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev and the Director of the Prof. Lyubomir Andreychin Institute for Bulgarian Language with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Prof. Svetla Koeva, signed a partnership agreement at the BTA Press Club in Sofia on Monday. BAS President Evelina Slavcheva attended the ceremony, which also marks the start of BTA's new column "Write Correctly".

The Institute will provide BTA with a specialized artificial intelligence model capable of automatically identifying linguistic inconsistencies and errors, tailored to the specific requirements of the Agency’s editorial process and proofreading activities. 

Valchev said that BTA will publish even more regularly information from the Institute for Bulgarian language regarding its numerous activities, and together they will begin promoting a column that appears regularly in the Az-buki weekly published by the Az-buki National Publishing House for education and science, with which the Agency also have a partnership agreement. "Almost a year ago, on the occasion of May 24, we presented here the booklet What Is Written Remains. Write Correctly! with 101 language notes by scholars from the Institute for Bulgarian Language, published by Az-buki. These are language notes that we hope to promote even further through BTA," he added.

"We had a discussion with the Institute regarding the development by its researchers of a version of a large, specialized language model with artificial intelligence - approved for use in the Bulgarian language and with open-source rights - to be utilized by BTA. These are language notes that, in many cases, go beyond mere grammatical or spelling corrections; rather, they require a comprehensive understanding of the text to be applied," explained Valchev. 

"We are counting on the Institute for Bulgarian Language to assist us in implementing these language notes and any new ones that follow, by adapting existing open-source language models specifically for the Bulgarian language. Our goal is not to keep this product exclusively for BTA, but once it works well enough, to make it available to editors at other media outlets as well, in order to protect and promote the Bulgarian language, as required by the BTA Act," said Valchev.

BTA will provide the Institute with archival materials a year back over which BTA holds exclusive rights - this includes all of BTA's news reports from Bulgaria as well as those from its correspondents around the world. This is a massive database that enables the training of language models, Valchev noted. "We expect the first version of this language model to be operational by the end of May, but our goal is much greater - for it to remain operational in the coming years," he explained.

BTA has partnership agreements with a number of BAS institutes, and to date the Agency has been publishing information from the Economic Research Institute at BAS on a relatively regular basis, Valchev noted. By comparison, ten years ago, in 2015, there was only one publication about the Institute for the entire year; last year there were 61, and in 2024 there were 64, he specified. He added that the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was among BTA's first partners when cooperation agreements were signed.

The Institute for Bulgarian Language was established on May 15, 1942, as the BAS Bulgarian Dictionary Department. “Our first publication, which was released by the Home News department, dates back to October 20, 1947,” recalled Valchev. He presented Prof. Koeva, with excerpts from the rich history of the BTA archives, as well as issues of the LIK magazine.

Prof. Koeva said it is only natural for BTA to collaborate with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute for Bulgarian Language, because these are institutions that are not only long-standing but also symbols of intellectual heritage.  "We can consider the Bulgarian News Agency a symbol of Bulgaria’s memory - of its past and present, and through its daily publications of its future as well, because through what is published by BTA, we preserve the memory of our people," noted Prof. Koeva.

In her words, it can similarly be said that the BAS is the spiritual centre of Bulgaria. It is the oldest institution in the country; it is the organization that brings together scientific institutes where, every day, scientists engage in research - quietly and modestly, added the Institute Director. 

"The Institute for Bulgarian Language is dedicated to researching, studying, and describing the current state of the Bulgarian language, as well as its history, the origins of its words and the language itself, its dialects, and, over the past 30 years, the Bulgarian language from the perspective of its computer processing," said Prof. Koeva. 

She reiterated that it is only natural for the Institute - through the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - or the two major organizations - BAS and BTA - to collaborate, because they are the intellectual leaders of Bulgaria.

"We are grateful to BTA for officially becoming a media partner - not only of BAS but also of the Institute for Bulgarian Language - and for giving us the opportunity to publicize our research through BTA publications," said Prof. Koeva. She explained that BTA’s data is important and extremely valuable to the Institute because it is verified by editors and is representative of the literary Bulgarian language. "BTA’s data is also important because it reflects the country’s cultural diversity, historical facts, and everything that distinguishes us as a nation and a people," explained Prof. Koeva. 

BAS President Slavcheva said that their collaboration with BTA is very focused and extensive. The collaboration between BTA and the Institute for Bulgarian Language is professional, and the two organizations will join forces not only to disseminate knowledge and information but also to improve the quality of their work, she noted. “This is extremely important; I welcome it, wish this collaboration every success, and am very pleased about it,” said the BAS President.