Meta Claims Breakthrough in Hitchhiker's Guide Style Language Translator

Meta wants to create a universal translator similar to the Babylon Fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta scientists have announced a major breakthrough in the development of a universal language translator using artificial intelligence (AI).

A Facebook owner has unveiled a new AI tool that can automatically translate speech from 100 languages.

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This technology can transcribe all 100 languages ​​into text form, as well as translate speech into spoken English and another 35 languages.

Recently, online translation tools have grown in popularity. decade.

Google Translate, launched in 2006, now supports 133 languages. Since then, the internet giant has developed headphones that can translate dozens of languages ​​in real time.

Smartphone manufacturers have also developed apps that can automatically translate languages ​​from images.

Meta has announced its new language. the translation technology was unique because it was built on a single artificial intelligence algorithm, and not on the stage-by-stage translation of languages ​​using different systems.

The tech company likened the challenge of building a universal translator to building the real-life «Babylon Fish» from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book uses a Babylonian fish to translate from any language in the universe.

The company said universal translation capabilities have been «long dreamed of in science fiction» but are now on the verge of reality thanks to artificial intelligence. .

However, Meta scientists said that current efforts «only cover a small fraction of the world's languages.»

Meta's latest AI tool, SeamlessM4T, will be released for free.

In addition to translating from one language to another, the latest Meta tool can also recognize when a speaker switches languages. .

The announcement comes as Meta seeks to compete with OpenAI, the developer of the AI-powered ChatGPT chatbot.