AI Video Translation is Connecting the World & Preserving Language Diversity

The accelerating rate of adoption of AI in daily life has become a beloved topic in tech publications since the release of ChatGPT, but the trend really began in 2020 with the beginning of the pandemic, when businesses needed to work smarter to survive and started widely adopting AI analytics. Now AI has entered mainstream consciousness, and according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, people in the US feel slightly more concern than excitement.

In its report, “How Americans Feel About AI,” Pew shows that only 18% of Americans are “more excited” about the incorporation of AI in daily life, while nearly double (37%) are more concerned than excited, and 45% equal parts concerned and excited.

In Web2 and Web3, it’s important to realize that less than 1/5 of people in the dominant center for tech innovation on Earth are willing to embrace the technology without trepidation.

Making AI work for us

Audiences develop relationships with apps – not underlying technology. AI is already all around us, helping us get work done more efficiently. The underlying fear is largely concern over losing control of the use of the technology and it’s vast potential to track, catalogue, and commodify our information – exactly the kind of abuse we have come to expect as users from adware to Facebook and Google.

But rarely do we expect AI solutions to breakdown barriers between people. That’s what AI-driven translation services are doing. To use a tech metaphor, AI-driven translation services solve one of the interoperability issues between humans who are using different languages which makes it hard for them to interact.

We can find simple AI-driven text translation on Google – but according to a recent report by Sandvine, 65% of online traffic.

Vidby is an AI and human-driven translation service that allows people to share critical and even life-saving information across language-barriers, not just with subtitles but by dubbing videos accurately in the language of the target audience. I spoke with co-founder CEO, and Chairman of Vidby, Eugen von Rubinberg about the challenges and potential of video translation to connect all people on Earth.

Justin: Is the language barrier one of the great challenges to our otherwise connected world?

EVR: “Language barrier is certainly one of the biggest problems in our world. But there will soon be no more language barriers. Everyone will understand everyone in the world.

With our technologies we wish to create understanding for people all over the world. We see this as part of our mission.”

Justin: Why did Vidby decide to focus specifically on video?

EVR: “Today, video is the best and most common and effective way of conveying information. The volume of consumption and effectiveness of video content is growing every year. It's a big trend that affects all areas. But that's not our only product. In the coming months we will be launching a professional translator for on-site meetings.”

Justin: Has Vidby changed your own perspective on language?

EVR: “We have been studying this topic intensively for a long time and we can say with certainty that language strongly influences the way people think. It is therefore important, among other things, to preserve linguistic diversity in the world, because this diversity moves the world. That is why we champion linguistic diversity.”

Justin: Will we ever have a figurative 'babelfish' app that translates languages in real-time?

EVR: “Yes, we already have such a product on iTunes called "vidby Meetap."It’s a handy application to translate personal conversations in real time. Within the next few months we will launch the second version, for iPhone and Android, for simultaneous translation of live broadcasts and live conferences in 70 languages.”

Justin: How are improvements in AI helping you solve new problems?

EVR: “AI and machine learning is of course at the heart of Vidby, but we also research and develop voices for children, teenagers, and seniors in all languages, for example. We currently don't know anyone else who offers that.

We also solved the issue of correct transfer of gender when translating from one language to another. For example, the phrase "I did" sounds the same for males and females in English, but it sounds different in German.

We have also put a lot of effort into developing a technology that can manage the same pronunciation in different languages. These are just a few examples of what we are doing and have done today. This year we plan to develop many more technologies that will close virtually all cases for good voice acting and translation. The only thing we're still working on, but not quite there yet, are emotions in the voice acting. This problem is relevant for the industry in the next few years, but it will also be solved, because technologically it is completely clear how to do it, it just takes time and money.”