Amazon is rolling out a new feature to all Echo devices that will translate languages in real-time.
The new Alexa feature works much like professional translation services, with each side speaking naturally in their own language, leaving gaps for the translation of each sentence.
No More Language Barriers
Alexa's Live Translation service currently supports translation between English and French, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese (Brazilian), German, or Italian. The new feature relies on Alexa's AI-powered ability to parse natural speech, along with neural machine translation technology to provide natural and intuitive conversions regardless of language barriers.
Getting started with the Live Translation service requires a simple voice command. Users can begin a translation session by saying "Alexa, translate German" then speak as normal – even leaving natural pauses between sentences.
Translation currently only works between a chosen language and English. With further language support coming, it will only be a matter of time before multilingual conversations become possible.
The new feature launched on December 14 and is coming to Alexa equipped devices worldwide in the coming days.
Amazon Makes Alexa Even More Indispensable
Live translation is one of the many romantic sci-fi ideas that excites most tech nerds (me absolutely included). The idea that anyone in the world could talk to anyone else and get an accurate real-time translation from a tiny computer is pure Star Trek.
Reading the accompanying blog to this release on amazon.science only serves to heighten that excitement. The post explains the measures taken to obfuscate the many steps it takes to provide a natural translation service, going into enough detail to convince almost anyone that this is incredibly difficult to do – but they are improving all the time.
Out of the many moving parts, the neural language model is key here. Being able to parse, understand, and translate colloquial and conversational speech is the holy grail of machine translation. If the Amazon development team is happy to release their work to the world, then it must be up to a standard testable by the public.
Everything Alexa does with speech is likely to improve, as its access to everyday speech is unprecedented. If you are willing to turn a blind eye to the security implications of always-on connected tech, and the shady behavior of large tech corporations, it's an exciting time to have an Alexa equipped device around.
Live Translation? Google Did It!
Bringing translation to Alexa equipped devices is overdue and a great step for general accessibility, but let's not forget that this has been a Google feature since early 2019. The Google variation, known as Interpreter Mode, works across most Google devices, from smartphones to smart speakers.
Without a doubt, the ability to use home assistants to translate real-time speech brings huge value to the concept of assistive home technology. It gives weight to the argument that however invasive, big corporation technology can have a net benefit on our lives.