Microsoft Introduces Phi-Omni-ST for AI Live Speech Translation – slator.com

On June 4, 2025, Microsoft released Phi-Omni-ST, an open-source multimodal language model (LM) designed for direct speech-to-speech translation, i.e. AI live speech translation. Built on the open-source multimodal Phi-4, Phi-Omni-ST achieves state-of-the-art performance using significantly less data and compute than commercial counterparts, according to the researchers. Unlike conventional cascaded systems that break down speech translation […]

OpenAI Doubles Down on Live Speech Translation in ChatGPT – slator.com

OpenAI is rolling out enhancements to ChatGPT‘s Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) feature for paid subscribers, promising more natural and human-like interactions, alongside a new real-time language AI speech translation capability. AVM leverages natively multimodal models, specifically GPT-4o, which are engineered to directly “hear” and generate audio. “Just ask Voice to translate between languages, and it […]

IIT Bombay Explores Accent-Aware Speech Translation – slator.com

In a May 4, 2025 paper, researchers at IIT Bombay introduced a new approach to speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) that not only translates speech into another language but also adapts the speaker’s accent. This work aligns with growing industry interest in accent adaptation technologies. For example, Sanas, a California-based startup, has built a real-time AI accent […]

How Mature is AI Interpreting? – slator.com

Findings from the 2025 Slator Language Services Provider Index (LSPI) reveal a stark divergence in fortunes within the language industry: While text translation providers grappled with a challenging 2024, those specializing in interpreting services experienced growth.  Companies like AMN Language Services, LanguageLine, Cyracom, GLOBO, and Equiti reported significant revenue growth, between 11% and 30%. They […]

New Research Tackles Key Challenges in AI Speech Recognition and Translation – slator.com

In a February 26, 2025 paper, researchers from Tsinghua University and the University of Cambridge introduced something called LoRS-Merging (Low-Rank and Sparse Model Merging), a technique designed to improve multilingual speech recognition and translation without the need for full retraining. By efficiently merging models trained on different languages or tasks, LoRS-Merging reduces computational costs, minimizes […]

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 […]

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 […]