Would it be more difficult for AI to interpret audio and parse meaning from a tonal language like Mandarin than it would be for English?

Answer 1

Not really. It's actually really easy for AI to interpret audio in Mandarin. You can also talk to AI in Mandarin, they will have a conversation with you. Many restaurants in China use robots to order food.

Answer 2

Mandarin has a lot of homonyms, so context is much more important for understanding the meaning of a single word. For this reason, I imagine it would be more difficult for AI to figure out the correct meaning. I think that might be a bigger challenge than identifying tones.