2022年10月27日 VOA慢速英語：Meta 展示 AI 驅(qū)動的語音到語音翻譯系統(tǒng)

 

Facebook parent company Meta has built a technology tool designed to directly translate spoken speech from one language to another.
Facebook 母公司 Meta 開發(fā)了一種技術(shù)工具，旨在將口語直接從一種語言翻譯成另一種語言。
 
Meta recently released a video that demonstrated how the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool can translate between English and the Hokkien language.
Meta 最近發(fā)布了一段視頻，展示了人工智能(AI) 驅(qū)動的工具如何在英語和閩南語之間進行翻譯。
 
In the video, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg explained that the project required different, unusual development methods. That is because Hokkien is mainly a spoken language. It does not have a widely used written form.
在視頻中，Meta 負責人馬克扎克伯格解釋說，該項目需要不同的、不尋常的開發(fā)方法。那是因為福建話主要是一種口語。它沒有廣泛使用的書面形式。
 
Generally, developers of translation systems train AI models on very large amounts of written text in the target languages. This arms the system with many different language examples and combinations in an effort to produce the most correct results.
通常，翻譯系統(tǒng)的開發(fā)人員會在大量目標語言的書面文本上訓練 AI 模型。這為系統(tǒng)提供了許多不同的語言示例和組合，以產(chǎn)生最正確的結(jié)果。
 
In general, AI-powered translation systems have improved greatly in recent years. It is now easier than ever to get translation help online or on devices to make international communication better.
總的來說，人工智能驅(qū)動的翻譯系統(tǒng)近年來有了很大的改進?，F(xiàn)在比以往任何時候都更容易在線或在設備上獲得翻譯幫助，以更好地進行國際交流。
 
But one problem with such systems is that there are delays linked to the translation process. For example, when the system records spoken speech, the words are first converted into text and then translated by an AI system. Then, the translated words are converted back into speech so they can be heard.
但此類系統(tǒng)的一個問題是翻譯過程存在延遲。例如，當系統(tǒng)記錄口語語音時，首先將單詞轉(zhuǎn)換為文本，然后由 AI 系統(tǒng)進行翻譯。然后，翻譯的單詞被轉(zhuǎn)換回語音，以便可以聽到。
 
The unusual part of the Meta project is that the development team did not have large amounts of Hokkien language text to feed into the AI system.
Meta 項目的不同尋常之處在于，開發(fā)團隊沒有大量的閩南語文本來輸入人工智能系統(tǒng)。
 
Hokkien is a version, or dialect, of Chinese. It is spoken by millions of people in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. It is also spoken by many people in Taiwan and some communities in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The language is generally passed down through generations of families.
福建話是漢語的一個版本或方言。中國東南部的福建省有數(shù)百萬人使用這種語言。臺灣的許多人以及馬來西亞、新加坡和菲律賓的一些社區(qū)也使用這種語言。這種語言通常是世代相傳的。
 
Meta notes that Hokkien is one of nearly 3,500 living languages that are mainly spoken and do not have a widely used writing system. The company says its AI developers are aiming to create speech-to-speech translation tools that would cover most of the world's languages.
Meta 指出，福建話是近 3,500 種主要使用且沒有廣泛使用的書寫系統(tǒng)的現(xiàn)存語言之一。該公司表示，其人工智能開發(fā)人員的目標是創(chuàng)建涵蓋世界上大多數(shù)語言的語音到語音翻譯工具。
 
Earlier this year, Meta announced two new AI projects. One is called No Language Left Behind. Zuckerberg said in a video that effort is designed to create translation systems to cover "hundreds" of world languages.
今年早些時候，Meta 宣布了兩個新的人工智能項目。一種叫做“不忘語言”。扎克伯格在一段視頻中表示，努力旨在創(chuàng)建涵蓋“數(shù)百種”世界語言的翻譯系統(tǒng)。
 
The other is called the Universal Speech Translator. The goal of that project is to build a system that can produce "speech-to-speech translation across all languages," the company said in a statement. Meta's latest system involving Hokkien was developed as part of its Universal Speech Translator project.
另一種稱為通用語音翻譯器。該公司在一份聲明中表示，該項目的目標是建立一個能夠產(chǎn)生“所有語言的語音到語音翻譯”的系統(tǒng)。Meta 涉及福建話的最新系統(tǒng)是作為其通用語音翻譯項目的一部分而開發(fā)的。
 
"The ability to communicate with anyone in any language — that's a superpower people have dreamed of forever, and AI is going to deliver that within our lifetimes," Zuckerberg said.
扎克伯格說：“能夠以任何語言與任何人交流——這是人們夢寐以求的超級大國，人工智能將在我們有生之年實現(xiàn)這一點。”
 
Meta said it used several different methods to create the new system to translate to and from Hokkien and English. The team trained its AI models on written text examples from another version of Chinese, Mandarin, which is similar to Hokkien.
Meta 表示，它使用了幾種不同的方法來創(chuàng)建新的系統(tǒng)來翻譯閩南語和英語。該團隊在來自另一個版本的中文普通話（類似于福建話）的書面文本示例上訓練其 AI 模型。
 
In addition, Meta developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text. The team also worked closely with Hokkien speakers to make sure the results were correct.
此外，Meta 開發(fā)人員使用了一種編碼工具，旨在將口語福建話與類似的英文文本進行比較。該團隊還與講閩南語的人密切合作，以確保結(jié)果正確。
 
Meta said it aims to use the same methods used for Hokkien to create speech-to-speech translation systems for many more languages in the future.
Meta 表示，它的目標是使用與福建話相同的方法，在未來為更多語言創(chuàng)建語音到語音翻譯系統(tǒng)。
 
The company said, however, that its Hokkien translation model "is still a work in progress." It noted that the system is currently only able to translate one full sentence at a time.
然而，該公司表示，其閩南語翻譯模式“仍在進行中”。它指出，該系統(tǒng)目前一次只能翻譯一個完整的句子。