Meta Announces First AI-Speech Translator For Unwritten Language

Meta announced its first AI-powered speech translation system for an unwritten language, Hokkien. Hokkien is widely spoken in Taiwan but lacks a standard written form. The latest AI-speech translator of Meta allows Hokkien speakers to hold conversations with English speakers.

Meta Announces First AI-Speech Translator For Unwritten Language

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The open-sourced translation system is part of Meta’s Universal Speech Translator (UST) project. The project is developing new AI methods that will eventually allow real-time speech-to-speech translation across all extant languages, even primarily spoken ones. The company believes spoken communication can help break down barriers and bring people together wherever they are located

Most previous AI-powered efforts for translating languages have focused on written language. However, one of Meta’s goals is to translate more languages that lack a formal writing system. According to Meta, there are more than 7,000 living languages, but over 40% are primarily oral and do not have a standard or widely known writing system like Hokkien. While the model is still a work in progress and can translate only one full sentence at a time, it’s a step toward a future where simultaneous translation between languages is possible.

Meta reveals that to develop this new speech-only translation system, AI researchers had to overcome many challenges from traditional machine translation systems, including data gathering, model design, and evaluation. Moreover, the company is hopeful to use the new AI system to translate more languages in the near future.

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