Makers of Open Source Model Hibiki Promise ‘High-Fidelity’ Speech Translation – slator.com
On February 5, 2025, French AI research lab Kyutai introduced Hibiki, “a model for simultaneous, on-device, high fidelity speech-to-speech translation.” Hibiki is Japanese for “resonance” or “echo” but is also a famous Whisky brand. Kyutai researchers explained that, unlike other offline speech translation systems, which require waiting for the full source utterance before starting the […]
Will Podcasts Become the Key Use Case for AI Dubbing? – slator.com
A couple of studies evaluating scientific research (found here and here) published in 2024 concluded that many challenges remain in AI speech translation, such as shortcomings in nuance, prosody, and latency; lack of a single, comprehensive evaluation metric; and a scarcity of annotated training data. But a lot of progress has been made, and AI […]
Live Speech Translator Lingopal.ai Raises USD 14M Series A – slator.com
Having been put to the test during the 2025 US football championship game (Super Bowl LIX), where it provided near-instantaneous speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) of sports commentary into several languages, 18-month old startup Lingopal.ai announced on February 12, 2025 that it had secured USD 14M in Series A funding. Led by DCM, with participation from Scrum […]
EzDubs, Startup Offering Speech Translation for Calls, Raises USD 4.2M in Seed Round – slator.com
Speech translation startup EzDubs has raised USD 4.2m in a seed round, coinciding with the out-of-beta launch of an app that translates calls in real time. Rahul Garg and ex-WhatsApp CBO Neeraj Arora, both with Venture Highway, led the round, with participation from Y Combinator partner Jared Friedman, Replit’s Amjad Masad and Michele Catasta, autonomous […]
The Most Popular Language Industry Stories of 2024 – slator.com
As 2024 comes to a close, it is time to reflect on the most popular stories, trends, innovations, and themes that made the Slator headlines throughout the year, highlighting key developments in the language industry. Here is a selection of stories that attracted the most attention and engagement from our readers around the world. Will […]
How Amazon Aims to Improve Lip-Sync in AI Dubbing – slator.com
In a December 21, 2024 paper, researchers from Amazon introduced the audio-visual speech-to-speech translation (AVS2S) framework, designed to improve lip-synchrony in AI dubbing without altering the original visual content. Existing dubbing systems frequently modify visual elements to synchronize with generated audio. This often leads to disjointed experiences, raises ethical concerns, and compromises the integrity of […]
Slator Pro Guide: AI in Interpreting – slator.com
Slator’s Pro Guide: AI in Interpreting is a must-have for interpreting service and solutions providers, providing a concise snapshot of the latest applications of AI and large language models (LLMs) in interpreting. This Pro Guide will get you up to speed on the value that AI can add to your company and the new interpreting […]