AKU perustuu Kone-Säätiön vuosina 2013–2014 rahoittaman projektin saavutuksiin sekä sen jälkeen kehittyneisiin periaatteisiin ja tulemiin.
AKU is a Finnish acronym for Open Language technology for Uralic and threatened languages (Avointa Kieliteknologia Uralilaisille/Uhanalaisille kielille). The principles and basis have gradually developed during a two-year project funded by the Kone Foundation at the beginning of its «Language Programme» 2013–2014.
In 2013–2014, the ‘Creation of Morphological Parsers for Minority Finno-Ugrian Languages` project developed finite-state analyzers and bilingual glossing dictionaries for five Uralic langauges. The purpose was to provide X-Finnish glossing for 20,000 words in each language and develop a finite-state description of each languages morphology, such that a morphological analyzer might be established for linguistic research. Each individual sub-project represented glossing work by a language-proficient specialist in collaboration with a person writing the finite-state morphology description.
The team effort was realized in the form of five sub-projects, where each person responsible for an individual language collaborated with native speakers and researchers of their specific language. These researchers simultaneously worked with the project leader, Jack Rueter, who then made the individual finite-state descriptions. The Livonian (liv) specialist was Renata Bloomberga, Olonets-Karelian aka Livvi (olo) was headed by Timo Rantakaulio, Hill Mari aka Western Mari (mrj) was the responsibility of Julia Kuprina (native speaker), Moksha (mdf) was managed by Merja Salo, and Tundra Nenets (yrk) was put together by Sven-Erik Soosaar. The language specialists provided paradigmatic test patterns for the individual language to enhance the development of finite-state description work by Jack Rueter.