Akhiqar
Akhiqar — ܐܚܝܩܪ — the name written in Assyrian Estrangela script, in gold
Presented by Sharokin Radio · The Voice of Assyria

AKHIQAR

The First Assyrian AI

From the wisdom of the past, to the intelligence of the future.

Building AI for the Assyrian language — a modern voice for an ancient tongue.

Discover the vision How you can help
Led by Atalla Youkhanna
A quiet fear

In the world being built by AI, our language is almost invisible

The great languages of the world — English, Arabic, Chinese, French — are being poured into artificial intelligence. Machines are learning to read, write, and create in them, beautifully. Our children are already growing up inside these tools.

Ask today's most advanced AI to read a line of Assyrian, and it stumbles.

It cannot reliably read our script, honor our grammar, or feel the weight of our words. In the digital world being built all around us, it is as if we do not exist — and that quietly teaches our children that Assyrian is a language of the past, not a language of tomorrow.

We cannot accept that. Akhiqar is our answer.

“I have carried this dream for almost my whole life. I cannot do this alone — that is the honest truth, and it is also the beautiful truth, because this was never meant to be one person's project. It is ours.”

— Atalla Youkhanna, founder
Meet Akhiqar

A mind that thinks in Assyrian

Akhiqar is an effort to gather our language — carefully, respectfully — and teach a modern AI to understand it, so that when the world speaks to machines, our voice is in the room.

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Reads & writes Assyrian

With genuine respect for how our script and grammar truly work — not a rough transliteration.

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Keeper of our texts

A living library that safely holds our poetry, prayers, and histories, and lets anyone search and explore them.

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A gentle teacher

A patient tutor for the next generation — and for anyone in the world curious about who we are — available any hour, anywhere.

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A bridge

Helping us translate, communicate, and create across the many languages of our scattered nation.

I want to be completely honest with you: today, this is more a vision than a finished product. These are early days. But every great act of preservation begins with someone deciding the work is worth doing.

Why the name
Akhiqar — ܐܚܝܩܪ — in gold Assyrian Estrangela script

Akhiqar

Long before there were computers, there was a keeper of wisdom named Akhiqar — the legendary Assyrian sage and royal counselor. His book of sayings was so treasured that people copied it by hand and carried it across the ancient world for more than two thousand years.

Where Akhiqar the sage kept wisdom alive on scrolls, Akhiqar the AI will keep our language alive in the technology of tomorrow.

How we will build it — honestly

A marathon, not a sprint

Building an AI for a language with limited digital material is a real challenge — but it is a known challenge, and it can be done, step by step.

1
The foundation

Gather our language

Collect Assyrian books, newspapers, poetry, recordings, church texts, lessons — anything written or spoken. This is where our community's help matters most. An AI can only learn from what we give it.

2
The smart path

Teach an existing AI to speak Assyrian

We don't build a mind from nothing. We adapt a powerful, openly-available model and teach it our language — the same path many smaller languages are taking, saving enormous time and cost.

3
Into your hands

Build the tools people can use

Turn the model into real things: a tutor, a writing helper, a modern Assyrian keyboard, translation tools.

4
Built to last

Improve, expand & sustain

Keep feeding it, keep listening to the community, and grow it into a lasting institution for generations.

No miracles overnight — a serious, honest, step-by-step effort, starting with the part we can begin today: gathering our language.

Be part of it

Two ways to be part of this

Supporter of the cause

Legacy work

Donor · patron · partner. You help preserve a 3,000-year-old language for the generations to come — your name part of the foundation of something historic.

Believer in the venture

Opportunity work

Investor · commercial partner. You get in early on a first-of-its-kind cultural-technology project, with real products and a real, global audience.

Our recommended path is a mission-first hybrid: the heart of Akhiqar stays free for our people, while premium tools earn revenue that sustains the mission and rewards early supporters. A gift to our nation that is also built to last.
Starting today

How you can help

You do not have to be wealthy or technical to make Akhiqar real.

Our upcoming achievement — yours and mine

Let us build Akhiqar together

A gift we leave for the Assyrian children not yet born, who will one day speak to the future in the language of our past.

Get in touch