language
Latest
Meta's new multimodal translator uses a single model to speak 100 languages
Meta has unveiled SeamlessM4T, its newest AI, "a foundational multilingual and multitask model that seamlessly translates and transcribes across speech and text."
Why humans can't use natural language processing to speak with the animals
We’ve already got machine-learning and NLP that can translate speech into any number of languages. Surely adapting that process to animal calls shouldn't be that big of a stretch?
Meta’s open-source speech AI recognizes over 4,000 spoken languages
Meta has created an AI language model that (in a refreshing change of pace) isn’t a ChatGPT clone. The company’s Massively Multilingual Speech (MMS) project can recognize over 4,000 spoken languages and produce speech (text-to-speech) in over 1,100. Like most of its other publicly announced AI projects, Meta is open-sourcing MMS today to help preserve language diversity and encourage researchers to build on its foundation. “Today, we are publicly sharing our models and code so that others in the research community can build upon our work,” the company wrote. “Through this work, we hope to make a small contribution to preserve the incredible language diversity of the world.”
Meta's AI translator can interpret unwritten languages
Meta researchers have developed an open-source machine learning system that can directly translate unwritten languages through speech-to-speech conversion.
Duolingo is expanding into math lessons and brain training
It's moving beyond language learning for the first time.
France officially bans English gaming terms like 'eSports' and 'streaming'
Despite widespread use of English terms in business and elsewhere, the French government has decided to pick on gaming by banning words like "streamer."
Duolingo is adding a family plan and five more languages
The company is planning to release a math-learning app next year.
Uber will offer free Rosetta Stone language courses to drivers
Uber and Rosetta Stone have teamed up to give drivers free language lessons that will help them speak to passengers.
Google's Fabricius uses machine learning to decode hieroglyphs
Google’s Arts and Culture vertical has been known to release fun apps and tools to help people engage with art and history. Now, the company is launching a web-based AI tool to let users interact with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and also help researchers decode the symbols with machine learning. It’s called Fabricius, named after the “father of epigraphy, the study of ancient inscriptions,” according to Google, and will let you send roughly translated messages in hieroglyphs to your friends.
This AI generates gibberish words with nonsensical definitions to match
ThisWordDoesNotExist.com offers an endless stream of AI-generated nonsensical babble, accompanied by seemingly plausible dictionary definitions.
Uber's app update offers message translations and makes pickups clearer
Uber is introducing a couple of new features designed to make ride pickups easier for both drivers and passengers. Firstly, the app interface has had a refresh to put more focus and transparency on ride arrival status, and secondly, a new translation tool has arrived, making it easier for riders to communicate with drivers that don't speak their language.
OpenAI published the tool that writes disturbingly believable fake news
In February, OpenAI announced that it had developed an algorithm that could write believable fake news and spam. Deciding that power was too dangerous to unleash, OpenAI planned a staged release so that it could offer pieces of the tech and analyze how it was used. Now, OpenAI says it has seen "no strong evidence of misuse," and this week, it published the full AI.
Alexa can now speak Spanish in the US
As of today, Amazon customers in the US can speak to Alexa in Spanish. They can switch Echo and Alexa Built-In devices to Spanish using the Alexa app, or they can take advantage of multilingual mode. That feature allows Alexa to respond in English or Spanish, depending on which language the question was asked in.
Google Assistant gets new voice options in nine more languages
Google Assistant users outside the US haven't had much choice when it comes to voice options -- until now, as Google launches a second voice for Assistant in French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegian, Korean, Italian and English for India and the UK.
Duolingo helps history nerds learn Latin
Duolingo is usually focused on teaching languages that are immediately relevant, even if they're only useful at sci-fi conventions. This, however, isn't one of them. The service has introduced a Classical Latin course that, with the help of the Paideia Institute, will help you learn a language that hasn't been commonly used for centuries -- it's not even the Ecclesiastical Latin still used in churches. The learning process works much like it does in other Duolingo courses, although Latin's complexity could pose a serious challenge. It'll be a while before you're translating ancient murals.
Duolingo and Twitch help streamers teach new languages
You won't have to rely on canned videos if you want to learn a new language through online streams. Duolingo and Twitch are launching a Duolingo Verified Streamer Program that will showcase broadcasters using their channels to teach new languages. Some of them might use Duolingo lessons in their streams, but others will promote the use of other languages in cooking, travel and other real-world situations. They'll also encourage you to practice your linguistic skills in chat.
Now Duolingo teaches the world's five most common languages
Duolingo's expanding language repertoire might just help you with a trip to the Middle East. The service now offers a course that teaches Arabic to English speakers -- specifically, a conversational version of the relatively universal Modern Standard Arabic. The program gradually introduces the alphabet, grammar differences and phonetics of the language to ensure that you're comfortable with the relatively difficult-to-learn linguistic structure.
Google's Translatotron can translate speech in the speaker's voice
Speaking another language may be getting easier. Google is showing off Translatotron, a first-of-its-kind translation model that can directly convert speech from one language into another while maintaining a speaker's voice and cadence. The tool forgoes the usual step of translating speech to text and back to speech, which can often lead to errors along the way. Instead, the end-to-end technique directly translates a speaker's voice into another language. The company is hoping the development will open up future developments using the direct translation model.
If Amazon wants Alexa everywhere, it needs better language support
I can't profess to fully understand all of the complexities of localizing services for various languages, nuances, accents and dialects where voice recognition is concerned. However, with Amazon's Alexa ambitions ramping up after its hardware event Thursday, it's worth questioning why the voice assistant's language support is so abysmal.
'Bingeable,' 'biohacking' and 'fintech' are now officially words
To say that the internet has played a massive role in the shaping of global society is a bit of an understatement, really, but one area that often gets overlooked is its influence on language. Thanks to teh interwebz (bear with me), we're all exposed to words, phrases and spellings from languages and subcultures we might never have access to otherwise, and this has opened up a whole world of linguistic joy (and loathing). Today, Merriam-Webster has added more than 840 new entries to its dictionary, a step in the continuous process of recording our ever-expanding language.
